The Love Hypothesis Advance Screening (In Person)
Join us for the ultimate movie night and an exclusive early showing of The Love Hypothesis, starring Lili Reinhart. Get ready to watch the sparks fly before anyone else as the screen adaptation of Ali Hazelwood’s bestselling novel comes to life before its release on Prime Video. Movie will start promptly on time with no […]
Call of Games presented by NYU
Video games offer a form of storytelling that has lured in countless authors, from playing obsessively in their childhood to incorporating video game influences in their books. Join novelist and co-editor of Critical Hits: Writers Playing Video Games J. Robert Lennon, novelist and editor Jeanne Thornton (A/S/L), and fiction and nonfiction author Ander Monson (Predator: […]
Does Colonialism Ever End?
What does it mean to describe colonialism as past when its borders, hierarchies, violence, and silences continue to shape the present—and even imagined futures? Bringing together Karim Kattan’s Eden at Dawn, and Mahmud El Sayed’s The Republic of Memory, the authors examine literature’s power to expose the enduring structures of domination dating back to the […]
The Things We Inherit
The consequences of one generation’s choices can become the inheritance of the next. In De’Shawn Charles Winslow’s The Fervent Whites, the return of a couple wrongfully imprisoned for murder unsettles a Hudson Valley community. In Harriet Clark’s The Hill, a young girl grows up visiting her mother in prison, caught between a grandmother who condemns […]
Ruler of the Ruins: Absolute Power and the Breaking of America
Join Pulitzer Prize-winning NYT journalist Maggie Haberman (Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, co-authored by Jonathan Swan) and National Book Award-winning author George Packer (The Emergency) for a cross-genre conversation about unfettered executive power and institutional erosion in an age of polarization. Combining Packer’s allegorical lens of fictional societal collapse with Haberman’s […]
Strangers in a Strange Land
There are many ways to be made to feel like an outsider. In Rahul Bhattacharya’s Railsong a transplant to the big city of Bombay learns to find her footing — and sense of self — navigating the train lines that criss-cross the city and country. While in A. Igoni Barrett’s satirical Whyteface, a Nigerian man […]
Who? New! International
Each season, BKBF presents several international debut authors whom we want to shine the light on for our audience. This year we present Palestinian writer Sara Abou Ghazal (Dream of Ayn Ara), Teme-Augama Anishnabai professor Tyson Stewart (The Return of the Nish), Kurdish writer Agri Ismaïl (Hyper), and Azerbaijani poet Egana Djabbarova (My Dreadful Body […]
The Stories We Tell Ourselves
There are stories we tell to make sense of ourselves, but what happens when those stories veer from the script? In Elaine Hsieh Chou’s Where Are You Really From: Stories, characters find themselves caught between fact and fiction, confronting döppelgangers, self-deception, desire, and the gap between the stories we tell and the truths beneath them. […]
On Vastness and Being: Latin American Authors in Conversation / De la inmensidad de ser: Autores latinoamericanos en conversación
On Vastness and Being: Latin American Authors in Conversation From Chile, Daniela Catrileo’s short story collection Piñen (trans. Jacob Edelstein) illuminates the lives of young Mapuche people, navigating the joys and tragedies of the urban Indigenous experience in South America. In Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun (trans. by Sarah Booker), set in […]
New Works: A Poetry Reading
Poets Will Brewer (Nocturama), Peggy Robles-Alvarado (Burn Me Back), Maya C. Popa (If You Love That Lady), and R. A. Villanueva (A Holy Dread) read from their new volumes of poetry. Introduced by Parker Menzimer, Public Programs Director, Poetry Society of America.
Multifaceted Manifestos: A conversation with Marlon James and Colson Whitehead
The 1980s is a decade infamous for its chaos, ugliness, and cruelty, but also adored for the art produced by a restless culture. These authors masterfully explore a time where beauty and violence existed simultaneously, and often because of each other. In Colson Whitehead’s Cool Machine, a New York City in transition glimmers with promise, […]
The Places We Carry
Home can be the place a person come from, the place they long to escape, and the place that continues to shape them long after they have left. In Douglas Stuart’s John of John, Cal returns to the remote Isle of Harris and to his father, whose expectations of his son clash with Cal’s struggle […]
Motherhood and Violence
Three acclaimed novelists explore motherhood, family, and the lasting effects of violence across generations and communities. Andrea Bajani (The Anniversary, trans. Geoffrey Brock) examines the legacy of domestic abuse through a son’s decision to sever ties with his family. Edwidge Danticat (Dèy) follows a Haitian American woman confronting grief, trauma, and the fragile bonds between […]
The Many Facets of Toni Morrison
Novelists and critics Tayari Jones (Kin), Namwali Serpell (On Morrison), and Dana A. Williams (Toni at Random) explore the life and legacy of the great Toni Morrison, across the wide expanse of her literary life and works. The writers engage too with how their own work is in dialogue with Morrison, how her legacy would […]
Re-enacting, Revisiting History
History can appear in different guises in novels—as historical setting, archival material, or storylines evoking past traumas. In Jeyamohan’s White Elephant (trans. Priyamvada Ramkumar), a nineteenth-century rebellion is captured against the backdrop of colonial rule in India; while Cristina Rivera Garza’s The Autobiography of Cotton (trans. Christina MacSweeney), weaves family history and historical records to […]
Survive, Salvage and Protest: Comics and the Climate
Young people today know that climate change is altering the world before their eyes. What will the future world look like—and will we survive? In her YA science-fiction graphic novel Salvage, Renée Nault depicts a class-stratified future megacity traversed by carefree technocratic children even as the outskirts of the city scrape by on salvaging and […]
Liberation Sounds
Music and the people who produce it are an engine of cultural change and transformation. Jibola Fagbamiye’s Fela: Music Is the Weapon documents the larger-than-life music and activism of Fela Kuti. After being influenced by the Black Power movement, Kuti became one of the principal innovators of Afrobeat, as well as a dedicated political activist […]
250 Years of American Activism
The comic book can lampoon the powerful, illustrate ideas, and preserve the history of activists and popular struggle. R. Sikoryak’s Declaration, Illustrated remixes pop icons to make an illuminated, accessible edition of the Declaration of Independence, inviting us to question the contradictions and unfinished business of our country’s values. Angélique Roché, through deep community research […]
Worlds in Transit
What does it mean to leave home behind to make another elsewhere? In Megha Majumdar’s A Guardian and a Thief, a mother desperately searches for stolen immigration documents as a worsening crisis in Kolkata threatens her family’s chance to reach America, while the thief who absconded with them struggles to protect his own family. In […]
Women Changing History
Across fiction, biography, and memoir, three new graphic novels show the motivations, agency, and bravery of intelligent women up against powerful men and totalitarian armies. Andrea Chalupa (Mrs. Orwell) dives into the life of Eileen Blair, poet and wife of George Orwell, who accompanied him to Spain when he chose to fight against Franco’s fascist […]
Secrets of the Stacks of New York City
If you think all city libraries are similar, think again. NYPL’s Library for the Performing Arts houses one of the world’s most extensive research collections in theater, film, dance, music, and recorded sound; and Brooklyn Public Library houses unique collections such as the first-ever public musical instrument lending library. Dive deep into the stacks of […]
Brooklyn Public Library’s Book Prize Winners’ Panel
Hear the winners of this year’s Brooklyn Public Library’s Book Prize, discuss their works in a conversation that will delve into the book’s inception and creation. Each fall, Brooklyn Public Library honors outstanding works of nonfiction and fiction/poetry with the BPL Book Prize. Past winners include Mosab Abu Toha, Emet North, Catherine Lacey, Lamya H, […]
Unbridled
Some feelings resist containment. Left unbridled, they can drive a person to decisions that feel inevitable in the moment and unrecognizable in hindsight. In Quiara Alegría Hudes’ The White Hot, a single mother’s all-consuming rage starts to appear in her young daughter and triggers only one response: to leave her child. In Morgan Thomas’ Mad […]
Can You Keep A Secret?
Get your heart racing during this session featuring bestselling author Danielle Valentine (Deadly Little Lesson), critically-acclaimed author E.L. Shen (Foreigners) and award-winning author Michael Ruhlman (A Taste of Somewhere Else) as they discuss a twisty mystery set at a boarding school that has a deadly curriculum, a thrilling historical romance that crosses generations, and a […]
Come to My Cottage
Did you fall in love on the ice this year? Keep the romance alive with other swoon-worthy love stories perfect for fans of both sports or queer romance! Ashley Woodfolk (Queerleaders), Angelica Cheng (Fast Track), and Stef Ferrari (Pining for You) come together about what gets characters’ (and readers’) hearts beating faster. Moderated by NYT-bestselling […]
Fall Into Fantasy
Be transported to incredible, unique fantasy worlds with bestselling authors! Join Sarah Beth Durst (The Faraway Inn), Amélie Wen Zhao (The Dragon and the Sun Lotus), and Shannon J. Spann (A Stage Set for Villains) for a compelling conversation about magic, romance, power, and family. Moderated by M.J. Hastings (Firstborn).
Booked & Banned
These are the books that readers refuse to put down. Join renowned authors Darcie Little Badger (Children of Owl), Camryn Garrett (In Between Days), and NYT-bestselling author Libba Bray (Under the Same Stars) in a candid conversation on banned books, free expression, and the stories that young adults deserve to read. Moderated by acclaimed author-illustrator […]
Nostalgia With A Twist
Your favorites like Little Women, Sleeping Beauty, Frankenstein, and The Ramanya are retold in breathtaking, fantastical, and sometimes deadly (!) ways in bestselling and award-winning novels. Join Katie Bernet (Beth Is Dead), Cindy Pham (The Secret World of Briar Rose), K. Ancrum (Adam, Mine), and moderator Newbery honoree Rajani LaRocca (Such Great Heights) in this […]
Dissidents and Movements: Being Part of the Solution
Authoritarianism thrives on fear, silence, and conformity. Breaking that gridlock requires both individual courage and collective strategy. Join Julia Angwin and Ami Fields-Meyer (On Courage: How To Be a Dissident in an Age of Fear), Jelani Cobb (Three of More Is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here), and Anand Gopal (Days of Love […]
“Tastes of Memory”: An Evening of Readings (In Person)
What links food and memory? Can an herb, a spice, or a fruit be an archive of history? How does food divide us as well as unite us? Inspired by a phrase from Ligaya Mishan’s New York Times review of a Cambodian restaurant: “it turns out that people want this: good food, thoughtfully made, that […]
Other Things Unspoken: Celebrating the PEN Prison Writing Awards Anthology Series (In Person)
For over 50 years, PEN America’s PEN Prison Writing Awards have honored and amplified the work of writers incarcerated throughout the United States. Since 2018, award recipients have been published in an anthology series of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama. This event honors the writers published in the latest editions of the PEN Prison Writing […]
Language, AI, and the Future of African Writing (Virtual)
As AI transforms how writing is created, edited and judged, what does this mean for African literature? This timely conversation explores the implications of AI for authorship, originality, African languages, and creative practice. Organised by Literary Denizens, this panel features Nigerian linguist and language technologist Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún, Zambian writer and editor Mubanga Kalimamukwento, Sierra Leonean-American […]
Breaking Through: Navigating the Journey from “Emerging Writer” to Debut Novelist presented by the Center for Fiction
Each year, the Center for Fiction / Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellowship provides creative and professional support to nine NYC writers who have not yet published a book of fiction. Don’t miss this panel with alumni Hafeez Lakhani, author of Abundance; Sarah Wang, author of New Skin; and Katie Yee, author of Maggie; Or, a […]
The Poet Translator
Poets and translators Haleh Liza Gafori (Rumi’s Gold and Water), John Murillo (Rafael Alberti’s Concerning the Angels), and Yasmine Seale (Agitated Air: Poems After Ibn Arabi) read and discuss the generative relationship between poetry and translation and what happens to a poet’s sense of language, form, and possibility when working between languages. Moderated by Ricardo […]
Who? New!
Each season, BKBF presents several debut authors whom we want to shine the light on for our audience. This year we present bookstore co-founder Jules Wernersbach (Work To Do), writer and editor Radhika Singh (Earthly Playing Field), professor Che Yeun (Tailbone) and multi-media artist Ankur Thakkar (Blow Yourself Up).
Future Ancestors
Poets Fatimah Asghar (Daughter of the Mountains), Diamond Forde (The Book of Alice), Naomi Shihab Nye (Sidekick), and Meghan O’Rourke (Sun In Days) read and consider the futures we can imagine and carry forward or transform for those who come after us. Moderated by Hafizah Augustus Geter.
The Women Who Shape Us
Mothers and their proxies tend to take on the bulk of directing a child’s life, which can lead to fraught relationships, atypical life lessons, and disappointment in the unexpected direction their child pursues. In Jordy Rosenberg’s Night Night Fawn, Barbara Rosenberg reflects on her life and failed guidance of her gender-nonconforming child, who is taking […]
The Cost of Fame
They say the higher you climb, the harder you fall, and the pursuit of fame across all disciplines comes with unexpected consequences. In Emma Straub’s American Fantasy, a beloved 90s boy band reunion on a cruise ship tests the limits of fandom with its now older fan base. In Teddy Wayne’s The Au Pair, a […]
Too Close For Comfort
Place, from the city and neighborhood to the personal space we call home, informs our identity and this proximity affects the way we perceive ourselves and others. Giada Scodellaro’s Ruins, Child follows a group of six Black women tending to each other in a derelict apartment building in a deteriorating urban environment while their daily […]
The Price of a Good Life
The promise of prosperity can be seductive—but what happens when the life we have worked to achieve begins to reveal its costs? In Courtney Maum’s Alan Opts Out, a successful advertising executive rejects the capitalist system he has spent his career serving, forcing his family to reconsider its own ambitions and definition of success. In […]
Phases of the Self
Artists spend their lives creating from the contradictions of being alive. In Brandon Taylor’s Minor Black Figures, a painter researching the career of a forgotten Black artist finds himself confronting questions about creativity, belief, friendship, and what it means to make Black art. In Davey Davis’s Casanova 20: Or, Hot World, two friends grapple with […]
Reimagining America
What does it mean to imagine America otherwise? Poets Tina Chang (LION), Erika Meitner (Assembled Audience), and Jonah Mixon-Webster (Promise/Threat) read and discuss how poetry can remake ideas and realities about nation, identity, and belonging, finding new ways of imagining our lives. Moderated by Edgar Kunz (Fixer).
Solitary Paths
Three acclaimed novelists explore solitude, freedom, and self-invention. Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny follows two young people across India, Vermont, and New York City as they navigate family ties, social class, and the pursuit of happiness. Yu-Mei Balasingamchow’s Names Have Been Changed traces a fugitive’s journey from Singapore to a life on […]
What the Past Refuses to Bury
Some histories don’t fall behind, they cling. In Amitav Ghosh’s Ghost-Eye, a young girl’s memories of another life draw a psychologist, her family, and a new generation into a mystery connecting past and present. In Melissa Faliveno’s Hemlock, a woman returns to the Wisconsin woods where her mother vanished and finds herself confronting an inheritance […]
What We Inherit, What We Retell
How and why do the stories we inherit become part of the narratives we tell about ourselves? Drawing on myth, song, literature, and cultural memory, internationally acclaimed authors Sinan Antoon, Violaine Huisman, and Valeria Luiselli discuss intertextuality as a way of thinking through memory, exile, family, history, and identity in their respective novels, Of Loss […]
2026 BoBi Honoree Amitav Ghosh in Conversation with Nathaniel Rich
2026 BoBi honoree and NYT bestselling novelist Amitav Ghosh will be joined in conversation by Nathaniel Rich, author of Cloudthief and three previous novels. Ghosh is the author of 11 novels including Sea of Poppies (shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize), The Circle of Reason, which won the Prix Médicis étranger, and most recently Ghost-Eye. […]
Myths, Monsters, and the Stories We Tell
Every community creates stories about its saints and sinners, heroes and monsters—but what do those stories conceal as much as they reveal? In John Manuel Arias’s Crocodilopolis, a powerful political family’s mythology of greatness gives way to a story of corruption, revenge, and betrayal. In Téa Obreht’s Sunrise, three lives separated by more than a […]
You Then, Me Now
Some friendships feel like they’ll last forever—until they reach a breaking point. In Stephanie Wambugu’s Lonely Crowds, two girls initially bonded together by rough upbringings have their friendship tested decades later as they enter the competitive art world of New York City in the 90s. In Emily Nemens’ Clutch, five best friends of two decades […]
The Consequences of Desire
Desire can be liberating, dangerous, exhilarating, and destructive—and the pursuit of it can expose the complicated power dynamics beneath our most intimate relationships. In Emma Copley Eisenberg’s Fat Swim, characters confront the ways bodies are watched, judged, desired, and remembered, finding connection in a world that often asks them to see themselves through the eyes […]
The Lives We Fight For
For people whose identities place them at odds with the societies, families, and communities they inherit, simply living openly can be an act of extraordinary courage. In Bobuq Sayed’s No God But Us, two queer Afghan men find themselves navigating exile, love, and an increasingly authoritarian Istanbul while trying to build lives on the margins […]
NBF Presents: Returning to the Page
The National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 prize recognizes debut fiction authors at the beginning of their careers, signaling writers to watch and read for years to come. Join past honorees—all with recent releases—Hannah Lillith Assadi (Sonora, 2018 5 Under 35 honoree; Paradiso 17), Anelise Chen (So Many Olympic Exertions, 2019 5 Under 35 honoree; […]
Banned, Challenged, Defended: Librarians Speak Out (Virtual)
Book challenges and bans continue to shape libraries and communities nationwide. Join librarians for a candid conversation about intellectual freedom, censorship, and the realities of responding to book challenges. Drawing on their professional experiences, they will discuss how librarians balance access, community concerns, and the freedom to read while serving the public. Moderated by Kate […]
Is Genre Necessary? (In Person)
Join the Long Island University Brooklyn Summer Writing Program for a lively discussion on best-selling and award-winning authors’ relationship to genre. How do they decide what bookshelf they belong on? How has genre limitations impacted their creative process, and their professional path? Is genre a necessary tool, or a diminishing construct in contemporary publishing? Featuring […]
The Literary Lounge (In Person)
Literary Lounge is a welcoming gathering for book lovers and the book-curious alike. Spend time in community through Rapid Reads (speed-style book chats), a DIY Bookmark Station, Design a Book Cover, and a Book Xchange where you can swap a gently loved book for a new read. Enjoy music, connect with fellow readers, discover your […]
Battle of the Genres (In Person)
Faculty and students of the St. Francis College MFA program will face off against each other in an all-out Battle of the Genres. Readers will alternate readings in different genres and the audience will vote on which genre won the battle at the end of the event. Who will win? Poetry? Nonfiction? Fiction? You’ll have […]
Behind the Counter: Stories from the Dominican Bodega (Virtual)
For many Dominicans, the neighborhood bodega is more than a corner store. It is a gathering place, a cultural archive, and a second home. Join authors Hilda Eunice Burgos (the Bodega Cats series), Abel Veloz (The Last Bodega in Jersey, Vol. I), and Amaris Castillo (Bodega Stories) for a conversation on writing Dominican-owned bodegas as […]
Tables of Contents Reading Series: Amna! Brahme! Yu! (In Person)
Join us at Long Island Bar in Cobble Hill for a reading featuring Dur e Aziz Amna, Alexa Brahme, and Vincent Yu! Each ticket includes three small dishes inspired by the passages and one complimentary drink, mixed by our friends at Cocktails in Color. Additional drinks will be available for purchase, along with books by […]
Seven Spouting Devils—One Night (In Person)
Spuyten Duyvil Press presents an evening of fiction and poetry. Join Spuyten Duyvil authors Vincent Czyz (Sun Eye Moon Eye), António Gomes (Love in the Shadow of Death), Caroline Hagood (Death and Other Speculative Fictions), John Madera (Nomad Science), Ian S. Maloney (South Brooklyn Exterminating), John Reed (Year of Valentines), and Greg Sanders (The Suffering […]
Back and Forth: The Relationship Between Authors and Editors (In Person)
Join A Public Space editors Louis Harnett O’Meara and Taylor Michael for a discussion with Writing Fellows Carolina Murriel and Joanna Yamakami about where the editing and writing processes meet. This panel offers an intimate look behind the scenes of the relationship between authors and editors. Facilitated by current Editorial Fellows Berta Coll Bosch and […]
The Scientific American Panel: Science in Fiction (In Person)
Join us for a panel exploring science in fiction, featuring Heather Frances, author of the instant USA Today bestseller Chase Me If You Can, where two storm chasers find a love that could blow them away; Isabel J. Kim, award-winning author of Sublimation, filled with doppelgängers and the harsh permanence of the border; Matthew Kressel, […]
Literature as Lifeline: Why Writing Sustains Us in Difficult Times (In Person)
Why does fiction—even dark fiction—feel like a lifeline when the world turns turbulent? This panel brings together four Stony Brook University MFA writers whose work pans our darkest times for gold: Robert Lopez (Part of the World; Dispatches from Puerto Nowhere), Joseph Levens (Unearthed), debut novelist Meryl Branch-McTiernan (What You Should Worry About), and novelist […]
Selected Shorts: The Five Boroughs (In Person & Virtual)
Legendary New Yorker Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City, The Gilded Age) hosts a literary stroll across bridges (and onto one ferry), showcasing the diversity and breadth of our city through voices from all five boroughs. Join us for a storytelling snapshot of New York, as told by authors writing from five unique and beautiful […]
Under the BQE Equinox Jazz “Flash Reading” and Party (In Person)
Listen to live jazz, sip a discounted cocktail courtesy of Kings County Distillery and hear authors and friends of Under the BQE Press Judson Merrill, Amy Wilkinson, Elaine Yellow Horse, Sean Anderson, and Helen Georgas celebrate the great autumnal shift between beginnings and endings as they read flash segments (5 minutes or less) from their […]
Crown Heights Lit Night! (In Person)
Three popular Crown Heights series team up for a fun and enlightening evening at famed neighborhood bar the Crown Inn! The Franklin Park Reading Series, World Transsexual Forum, and the Crown Inn Reading Series host a showcase of fresh poetry and prose from a mix of established and up-and-coming writers: Naima Coster (Take What You […]
Patchwork Literary Salon: LGBTQ Debuts (In Person)
Patchwork Literary Salon brings together authors across genres and stages in their careers to create a colorful tapestry of literary community. This special BKBF Bookend event will spotlight LGBTQ debut fiction across genres, featuring brief readings, a panel discussion moderated by host Nadine Santoro, prizes, books for sale c/o Hive Mind Books, and BKBF-themed cocktail […]
Mosaic: Sa’K Pasé, Haiti (In Person)
Join us for a special public reading celebrating Mosaic Literary Magazine issues #44 and #45. Featuring contributors from our James Baldwin issue (#44) and our Haiti issue (#45), the evening brings these two landmark editions into conversation through poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Together, the readings explore liberation, migration, identity, joy, and the enduring power of […]
Celebrating Women-Owned Black Bookstores (In Person)
Join the Center for Black Literature as we celebrate Women-Owned Black Bookstores. Inspired by the NYC Black-Owned Women Book Store Crawl, held in March 2026, the Center for Black Literature is proud to celebrate these remarkable women-owned bookstores that continue to enrich New York’s literary and cultural landscape. Brooklyn is home to an incredible network […]
Tipsy Bee Author Spelling Bee & Book Fair (In Person)
The Tipsy Bee returns to Bookends! Watch as your favorite authors try to spell words taken from their own books, reviews of their books, and from other literary and not so literary inspirations. The bee goes on until there is only one author standing! Who will it be? Participating authors include Cat Fitzpatrick, Laura Venita […]
From the Stage to the Page: When Playwrights Write Prose (In Person)
Kim Merrill (Red Girl Jumping), Steven Fechter (The Big Breeze), and Alvin Eng (Our Laundry, Our Town), three accomplished writers who began in the theater, discuss their journeys from playwriting to fiction and memoir. What is lost and what endures? How do playwrights translate the immediacy of performance into the interiority of prose? What happens […]
Radical Ahjumma x KQT Pungmul: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee 서포트그룹 / Support Group (In Person)
Korean spirits, old and new… geonbae! Join Radical Ahjumma’s N. Jooyoun Kim (The Last Story of Mina Lee, What We Kept to Ourselves), Margaret Juhae Lee (Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History), and NEA Fellow S. Isabel Choi for an intimate celebration of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s DICTEE, a genre-challenging ode to grief, memory, […]
Reframing the Headlines: Latinx Perspectives in Book-Length Journalism (Virtual)
Beyond the headlines are deeply human stories that deserve context, nuance, and understanding. In this conversation, Latinx authors and journalists use long-form journalism, research, and scholarship to illuminate some of today’s most pressing issues, including immigration, citizenship, history, identity, and the evolving experiences of Latines in the United States. Through rigorous reporting, in-depth research, and […]
BAAAD: Black Authors Against AI & Data Centers (In Person & Virtual)
During NY Climate Week, join the Black Hive, the climate/environmental justice formation at the Movement for Black Lives, for BAAAD (Black Authors Against AI & Data centers). Aya de León, Tyehimba Jess, and Cleyvis Natera will read selections of their fiction and poetry alongside organizers sharing strategies to push back against the harms AI and […]
The Crucible of Self-Discovery: Finding Yourself Through Fiction (Virtual)
Join Queer Indie and The Writing Community Chat Show for this panel on toxic perfectionism, creativity in survival mode, neurodivergent imagination, alternative methods of productivity, writing through trauma, and unraveling self-doubt. This discussion features authors and content creators from Queer Indie’s directory: C. J. Aggett, Anna Bloom, Dr. Mario Dell’Olio, Ross Young, Halo Scot, Anya […]
Midnight, Jazz, and Langston: Navigating Kindred Spirits (In Person)
Join poet and spoken word performance artists Lorraine Currelley, Ngoma Hill, Betty Pierre, and multi-instrumentalist Tony Crawford for an evening of music, poetry, and spoken word performance. Rooted in ancestral memory, this event is a passionate, poetic, musical exploration of identity, shaped by a continuum of collective history, culture, ancestral wisdom, time, and place; a […]
Read the World A to Z Launch Celebration (In Person)
Travel the globe with the most influential voices from Argentina to Zambia! Translation press World Editions partners with Rabbit Books & Bar and BKBF to launch Read the World A to Z, a series of 26 translated novels, one country for every letter of the alphabet—the first three from Argentina, Belgium, and China. Celebrate with […]
Where Local Meets International: A Jackson Heights Bookend Event (In Person)
Join us for readings by local Queens writers Rebecca Gopoian, Eugene Lim, Nita Noveno, and Monica de la Torre, and featuring a conversation with Brooklyn Book Festival author from India, Jeyamohan (White Elephant). This Bookend Event highlights the creativity and diversity of the Queens community. Drinks and reception to kick off the evening. 6:30-8:30 PM. […]
National Book Critics Circle Panel Discussion on Literary Criticism (In Person)
The National Book Critics Circle presents a panel discussion on both the craft of literary criticism and new opportunities for book critics in today’s challenging environment. The conversation will range from practical tips to the art of the review, and will feature Joanna Biggs (Yale Review), Emily Greenhouse (NYRB), Joumana Khatib (NY Times), and Zoë […]
Behind the Pages: Rethinking Publishing with Asian Pacific American Editors (In Person)
What does it mean for an APA writer to work with an APA editor? What does it mean for an APA-identified editor to work with another writer of color? What experiences have APA editors have in mainstream publishing houses versus in independent and ethnically-focused publishing spaces? These are questions that Asian American editors Yuka Igarashi […]
Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize Shortlist Reading (In Person)
This Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize event features the shortlisted authors for 2026. Past winners include Mosab Abu Toha, Kaveh Akbar, and Blair L.M. Kelley. This talk will feature current shortlist nominees reading their work and in conversation. The Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize was established in 2015 by the Brooklyn Eagles—young, engaged Brooklynites who […]
16th Annual Brooklyn Indie Party (In Person)
Greenlight is delighted to once again partner with the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP), as well as some of Brooklyn’s best independent book and magazine publishers, to throw a Brooklyn-sized party celebrating the spirit of literary independence in our borough. Partygoers are invited to have a drink, mingle with Brooklyn authors and publishers, […]
Art of Darkness: Writing the Weird (In Person)
Please join us for a day celebrating the art of capturing the odd on paper with a panel that covers the odd and unusual in fiction and nonfiction. Ranging from the horrifically chilling to high camp, fans and artists are encouraged to emerge from the shadows and share their love of literary oddities. Authors Ilise […]
Between the Page & Stage: Staten Island Youth Open Mic & Author Reading (In Person)
That’s Right Open Mic teams up with Nuyorican Poets Cafe and Staten Island Urban Center to celebrate local voices. On Saturday, September 26th from 3:00-6:00 PM at the Staten Island Urban Center, local young creators (ages 12–24) will share their art and lived experiences. The evening continues with a reading and Q&A with NYC author […]
Odesa in Odyssey: Navigating Forms, Languages, and Cultures (In Person)
Odesa, Ukraine, is a city of wit, warmth, and, not for the first time, war. Panelists will read and discuss original work and translations rooted in the city. Natalya Sukhonos (Sunlight Trapped in Stone) explores her heritage, immigration, and Russia’s ongoing invasion in her latest poetry collection. Ian Ross Singleton reveals how Yuri Yanovsky‘s The […]
Around Asia and Back: A Reading in Harlem (In Person)
Four Asian authors bring news of the world: Singapore, Malaysia, Pakistan, Japan, and South Africa. Yu-Mei Balasingamchow (Names Have Been Changed), Sharmini Aphrodite (The Unrepentant), Roohi Choudhry (Outside Women), and Jee Leong Koh (To the Tune) read from their new books and discuss their writing as it relates to place, identity, migration, and resistance. Silvana […]
#YeahYouWriteBKBF26 (In Person)
Join #YeahYouWrite for an author event featuring fiction readings, #LiteraryCocktails, #OpenMic, Q&A, food, and fun. We’ll welcome Hannah Lillith Assadi (Paradiso 17), Kerri Schlottman (Daytime Moon), and Abigail Savitch-Lew (Livonia Chow Mein) and celebrate Brooklyn and its iconic book festival with “Hollywood Stars-esque” sidewalk chalk art (celebrating Brooklyn bookstores and authors), a map of Brooklyn […]
EGOBIBL: A Launch Event for Queens’s Newest Literary Journal (In Person)
Join contributors to the inaugural issue of EGOBIBL, as they launch this exciting new literary journal from the students of The Q Studio Lab in Queens. Led by Eric M. B. Becker, award-winning literary translator and longtime editor of Words Without Borders and Asymptote, with Gina Jung, the journal showcases poetry, fiction, and nonfiction from […]
Publishing Revolutionary Books (In Person)
Things are weird and terrible and complicated out in the world. Can books help connect people, share information, and create real change in the world? Haymarket, Street Noise Books, and Verso are dedicated to doing just that with their publishing programs. In this panel, publishers talk about the power of stories, and their place in […]
Between Earth and Water: Readings on Migration, Belonging, and Survival (In Person)
What does it mean to live between worlds—between countries, languages, identities, and selves? On September 20th, Sunday Salon NYC presents Between Earth and Water, a reading featuring four writers whose new and recent work explores migration, belonging, the body, and survival across borders and generations. Spanning hybrid memoir, poetry, fiction, and narrative nonfiction, their work […]
Carousel: Comics Performances (In Person)
Carousel presents readings of graphic novels and comics, as performed by a diverse group of creators, featuring vivid projected imagery. Join us for a selection of some of the most exciting and inventive trends in graphic memoirs and fiction, followed by a book signing. Featuring: Morgan Boecher (Chicken Heart); Makee (Call Me Emma: One Chinese […]
Literature, Resistance, Survival
Three writers explore art, resistance, and survival under oppressive regimes. Jeremy Tiang (State of Emergency) follows the political upheavals of Singapore and Malaysia from the 1940s to the present through the intertwined lives of one family; Emmelie Prophète (Cécé) captures the stark realities of a young woman navigating gang-controlled neighborhoods and violence in contemporary Haiti; […]
Disruptive Love
International authors Yang Shuang-zi (Taiwan Travelogue, translated by Lin King), Claire Adam (Love Forms), and Justin Haynes (Ibis) discuss writing love in its most complex manifestations. From the disrupted intimacies between a young traveler and her interpreter in Japanese-controlled Taiwan, to the fractured maternal love of a young woman forced to give up her baby […]
BoBi Honoree Marlon James in Conversation with Isaac Fitzgerald
2025 BoBi honoree and NYT bestselling novelist Marlon James will be joined in conversation by Isaac Fitzgerald, author of Dirtbag, Massachusetts. James is the author of five novels, including the National Book Award finalist Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the first novel in his fantasy trilogy, Dark Star. His novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, […]
The Fiction Impulse in Nonfiction Criticism
Three literary critics consider the boundary between fiction and nonfiction, literature and criticism. While Sarah Chihaya (Bibliophobia), Andrea Long Chu (Authority), and Jeremy Gordon (See Friendship) immerse themselves in others’ fictions as they work, they must approach these works from another literary tradition, that of literary criticism. But are the novelist’s and critics’ impulses really […]
Ghosts of Yesterday
The past has a way of creeping up on you. In Fox, Joyce Carol Oates introduces us to Francis Fox, an enigmatic English teacher whose mysterious history catches up to him when his car is found submerged in a pond with an unidentified body. In Dwyer Murphy’s The House on Buzzards Bay, a group of […]
The Silence in Stories
Three acclaimed international authors explore the effect of silence and untold stories on their characters. In The Ghetto Within, Santiago H. Amigorena portrays a Polish emigre in Argentina haunted by the fate of his mother in the Warsaw Ghetto; Swedish author Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s Sisters reveals guarded family stories that bond and fracture relationships of […]
Alison Bechdel & Diane DiMassa In Conversation
Giants of queer cartooning, Alison Bechdel and Diane DiMassa have lived through and responded to decades of warmongering, anti-feminist rhetoric, and oppression. Diane DiMassa’s Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist, released this year in a new edition from New York Review of Books, was a steam release valve for zine readers in the late 1980s to […]
NBF Presents: Friendship that Inspires
Hear author and 5 Under 35 honoree Weike Wang as she reads from her new work, Rental House, followed by a discussion about writing in and about New York, literary mentorships, and how friendship (and writing) evolves over time. Wang is joined in conversation by Ruth Dickey, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation. Presented […]
New Forms of Heartbreak
Whether love fosters recovery, discovery, or resilience – it’s messy. In Katie Yee’s Maggie, or a Man and Woman Walk Into A Bar, a woman grapples with the end of a marriage due to an affair during a breast cancer diagnosis, where she reflects on the relationship in conversation with her tumor that she names […]
The State of US
The state of America has been in flux throughout its political landscape and beyond. In their newest books, authors Jason Mott, Kevin Nguyen, and Gary Shteyngart tackle everyday discussions plaguing our communities– from gun violence, anti-Asian violence, and the everyday microaggressions and racism that blended families encounter. In People Like Us, two black writers are […]
More Than Friends
In Jasmine Guillory’s Flirting Lessons, Jonny Garza Villa’s Futbolista, and Celia Laskey’s Cover Story, the friendzone is no longer a concern as these protagonists cross the lines that border friendship and romance. From getting one-on-one lessons in the art of flirting, getting tutored by a one-time kiss at a party to stay on the soccer […]
The Surreal Next Door
In Marie-Helene Bertino, Ananda Lima, and Debbie Urbanski’s most recent collections, the everyday becomes infused with a haunting, surreal quality. In Exit Zero: Stories, death takes many forms, ranging from menopausal vampires, ghost girls, a painting of Cher, and a day-old peach. In Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil, a writer sleeps with the […]
The Unconventional Playbook
In Kristen Arnett’s Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One, a down-on-her-luck professional clown meets a successful older lesbian magician who provides a way to improve her act, but at what cost? In Kashana Cauley’s The Payback, a woman pursued by the Debt Police decides to take matters into her own hands with two other […]
Portraits of the Everyday
Between imagining the varieties of life’s circumstances, embodying the perspectives of numerous people, and capturing the distinctly human emotions amidst it all, join Ed Park (An Oral History of Atlantis: Stories), Lynne Tillman (Thrilled to Death: Selected Stories), and Jared Lemus (Guatemalan Rhapsody: Stories) as they delve into what writing short stories means to them. […]
The Whiting Foundation Presents: Early Inspirations
Whiting grantees Aria Aber (Good Girl), Aaliyah Bilal (Temple Folk), Liza Birkenmeier (Grief Hotel), and Nicholas Boggs (Baldwin: A Love Story) for a conversation about the lasting influence of home and youth on their work. The event is presented in partnership with the Whiting Foundation, and will be moderated by Whiting Award-winning playwright, Donnetta Lavinia […]
If These Walls Could Talk
What happens behind closed doors can never be learned – unless someone inside screams loud enough to be heard. In the first novel of Stephen Graham Jones’ dual publication of The Babysitter Lives/ Killer on the Road, a babysitter realizes she is not alone in the house with the twins she’s watching. In Amber Sparks’ […]
Life On Your Terms or Mine?
Whether it’s unexpected propositions, social upheaval, or the passage of time, life is an unending crisis of choice versus obligation. Angela Flournoy’s The Wilderness follows four friends as they navigate estrangement, unexpected pregnancy, going viral, and pursuing their dreams independently. In Ada Calhoun’s Crush, the nameless narrator undergoes an extramarital emotional affair after her husband suggests […]
Who? New!
Each season, BKBF presents several debut authors whom we want to shine the light on for our audience. This year we present Issa Quincy (Absence), Phoebe Greenwood (Vulture), Greg Hewett (No Names), and Olufunke Grace Bankole (The Edge of Water). This year, we welcome special guest, Joyce Carol Oates (Fox), who will introduce the authors […]
Love is in the Air (Literally)
Sometimes, all you need to find love is to look up. In Marcy Dermansky’s Hot Air, a childhood crush turned billionaire crash-lands his hot-air balloon into a first date. In Kate Folk’s Sky Daddy, a woman’s weekly flights mean a new date with a handsome stranger– the plane itself. In Emily Hamilton’s The Stars Too […]
Let’s Get Real
If you haven’t noticed, teens are dealing with A LOT these days. Whether it’s finding unexpected romance, exploring bodily autonomy and navigating one’s family and heritage, join New York Times bestselling authors Ashley Woodfolk (Call Your Boyfriend, w/Olivia Cole) Ibi Zoboi ((S)Kin) and critically acclaimed author Melissa Kantor (Biology Lessons) as they discuss how they […]
Can’t Help Falling in Love
From a fake relationship-turned-real in Tashie Bhuiyan‘s I’ll Pretend You’re Mine and former flames-turned-dorm mates in Page Powars‘ And They Were Roommates to a dual-contemporary and historical tale of love then and now in Jordyn Taylor’s Rebel Girls of Rome, sometimes love falls on you! Especially when you least expect it. Moderated by Xixi Tian […]
When Art Meets Politics
Whether you’re a modern teenager navigating spaces not built for people like you, uncovering a mystery centuries in the making, or falling in love against the backdrop of one of the darkest periods in Korean history, it’s impossible to separate our personal narratives from the political contexts in which we exist. Join authors Frederick Joseph […]
Viet Thanh Nguyen and Imani Perry in Conversation: Nonfiction and the Personal Lens
Join us for a conversation between two esteemed authors who explore identity, culture, class, and history through a personal lens. In her book Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People, Imani Perry examines the relationship between the color blue and its presence in Black history. In his book To Save […]
Brooklyn Public Library’s Book Prize Winners’ Panel with Ken Chen
Hear Emet North (In Universes) and Mosab Abu Toha (Forest of Noise), the winners of this year’s Brooklyn Public Library’s Book Prize, discuss their work with Brooklyn poet Ken Chen, who will delve into the books’ inception and creation. Each fall, Brooklyn Public Library honors outstanding works of nonfiction and fiction/poetry with the BPL Book […]
Speculative Fiction and Faith
Whether we’re raised with or simply exposed to religious ideologies, their doctrines can shade our lives in unexpected ways. In Anna Meyer’s Saint Catherine, a young woman skips Catholic mass for the first time and wrestles with demonic possession in a coming-of-age story that finds her questioning her piety and agency. Mattie Lubchansky’s dystopian satire, […]
Family, Unraveled
All families are complicated, with legacy, personal choices, and societal expectations shaping or breaking the bonds that hold them together. In Jason Diamond’s The Kaplan’s Plot, a son returns home to take care of his dying mother and learns of long-buried secrets and shames from his family’s past. In Katie Kitamura’s Audition, an actress and […]
Radical Self-Discovery
Finding your way into a new community can bring hard lessons, but also unbridled joy. Inspired by the journals of her grandfather, Melissa Mendes’ The Weight follows young Edie, a child of the Great Depression, as she grapples with domestic abuse and hard life lessons. Mike Curato’s Gaysians celebrates the stories of four gay Asians […]
Myth, Folklore, and Everyday Horror
Authors Amanda Lee Koe (Sister Snake), Zuzana Říhová (Playing Wolf, translated by Alex Zucker), and Olive Senior (Paradise Once) share the ways Chinese, Czech, and Jamaican myth and folklore have influenced their work. From the binding and transformative ties of sisterhood in Tang dynasty China and present-day Singapore, to the creeping psychological horrors afoot in […]
The Weight of What Remains
History, whether in the familial or broader sense, has a way of haunting the present through memories, life choices, and beyond. In Susan Choi’s Flashlight, a father’s disappearance leaves his wife and daughter adrift as they attempt to move on, but questions about that night continue to echo. In Alejandro Heredia’s Loca, Sal and Charo […]
Beyond the Page
In Nnedi Okorafor’s Death of the Author, Lincoln Michel’s Metallic Realms, and Fernando A. Flores’ Brother Brontë, fiction and reality blur together as narratives metastasize within the pages of the pages and so on. In Death of the Author, a woman’s debut novel finds unexpected success, but as her fame rises, she loses control of […]
Breaking Genre: When Artists Don’t Stay in Their Lane, Presented by the Asian American Writers’ Workshop
From horror poets to literary sci-fi novelists, genre and form boundaries are more porous than ever, especially for Asian American artists and storytellers. This multi-disciplinary panel of Asian American authors and artists – Samira Asma-Sadeque, Siyang Lim, Katie Yee – who challenge normative conventions, from blending forms to redefining the limits of genre itself. What […]
What Does it Mean to Be the “Best”? On Writing, Winning, and What Comes Next
First awarded in 2006, The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize recognizes the best debut novel of the year. Hundreds of readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, and other members of The Center’s community help determine the longlist—which means the Prize reflects the diverse tastes, concerns, and imaginations of many people—but what does it really mean to […]
The Long Shadows of Empire
The pains of colonization are omnipresent, even when buried or seemingly removed. In Lauren Francis-Sharma’s Casualties of Truth, a woman is forced to reckon with the violence that shaped her success when she is introduced to a man from her past in apartheid South Africa. In Tochi Onyebuchi’s Harmattan Season, a private investigator is recruited […]
Growing Up and Moving On
Award-winning author Ebony Ladelle (This Could Be Forever) joins debut author Arriel Vinson (Under the Neon Lights) in this panel about the messiness of growing up, moving on, and starting the next chapter. With fearless portrayals of love in the face of heartache, navigating family expectations, and dreaming against all odds, these authors send their […]
Loneliness and Exile
In this virtual panel, three novelists explore dislocation, belonging, and the search for connection. Sulaiman Addonia (The Seers) chronicles the early weeks of a young Eritrean refugee in London, following the intimate and erotic lives of asylum seekers. Sarah Moss (Ripeness) reveals family secrets woven into an English woman’s migration between 1960s Italy and modern […]
Alumni of the Occult
Remember the good ol’ days of college, where you turned bunnies into boys, learned to be the anti-Christ, and joined the inner circle of an amateur magician who suddenly died? No? In Mona Awad’s We Love You, Bunny, Cassandra Khaw’s The Library at Hellebore, and Kate van der Borgh’s And He Shall Appear, achieving alumni […]
A Prophet of One’s Own
In Jess Walter’s So Far Gone, a hermit-like retired journalist is forced to confront the radically alien beliefs of his former son-in-law, who has joined the Church of the Blessed Fire, a feeder organization for a far-right militia group. In Karen Russell’s The Antidote, the Prairie Witch is the communal balm her Nebraska townspeople need […]
Naked on the Page
The premise of sharing intimate details of our lives can sound daunting, but in practice — sharing one’s life on the page with honesty, thoughtful consideration, and critique — can it actually allow us to get closer to ourselves? Join us for a conversation between Melissa Febos, author of The Dry Season, and Catherine Lacey, […]
Story and Sovereignty
Each season, BKBF presents several international debut authors whom we want to shine the light on for our audience. This year we present Korean translator and writer Jinwoo Park (Oxford Soju Club), Canadian playwright and director Aurora Stewart de Peña (Julius Julius), Ugandan-Canadian journalist Iryn Tushabe (Everything is Fine Here) , and Berlin-based writer Ella […]
The Mad, Mad World of Motherhood
Three graphic novelists grapple with the physical labor, mental load, and beauty of motherhood in this virtual panel. Rachel Deutsch’s The Mother traces her journey toward motherhood and egalitarian parenting while dealing with family trauma. In Mama Needs A Minute, Mary Catherine Starr speaks frankly about what she sees as the imbalance between her and […]
Mapping History and Its Fault Lines
How do you make sense of the hidden rifts and fractures in a country’s past? How do you read the warning signs? The Cartographer of Absences, by Mozambican writer Mia Couto (translated by David Brookshaw), unearths long-buried secrets of colonial-era atrocities. Geetanjali Shree’s Our City that Year (translated by Daisy Rockwell), explores the underground tensions—and […]
The New Kids: 2025 Debut Authors Talk Process, Publishing, & Community (In Person)
Debut authors with books launching in 2025 discuss their books and the debut process – from the first idea to the actual launch. In addition to describing their different approaches to story and craft, they will share their experience with the community and support they found as they followed their paths to publication. Featuring authors […]
LGBTQ+ Stories Matter! (In Person)
From memoirs to novels, real folks and fictional characters, LGBTQ+ stories matter than more ever. Join us for a fun, impactful afternoon of queer and trans literary brilliance and story-making, featuring memoirist Terry Dyer (Surviving & Thriving as a Gay Black Man) and other storytellers (including you!) We will have books, refreshments, a musical performance, […]
Literary Community Craft Lab (In Person)
Connect and create with authors, writing mentors, and multimedia artists in a simultaneously programmed Community Craft Lab organized by Literary Craft Society (led by multi-awarded author and literary activist, Juliet Diaz) in partnership with the Talking Writing podcast. Featuring: The Unbannable Library exhibit of big books created by NYC writer-artist collaborations and produced by artist […]
Collective Art-Making Under Repression and the Politics of Spectacle (In Person)
Radix Co-op presents a dialogue on art-making under state repression. We will feature a screening of Guy Debord’s Refutation of All the Judgements, Pro or Con, Thus Far Rendered on the Film ‘The Society of the Spectacle,’ followed by a discussion featuring Zein El-Amine (Is This How You Eat a Watermelon?), Kamelya Omayma Youssef (A […]
15th Annual Brooklyn Indie Party (In Person)
Greenlight is delighted to once again partner with Community of Literary Magazines & Presses (CLMP), as well as some of Brooklyn’s best independent book and magazine publishers, to throw a Brooklyn-sized party celebrating the spirit of literary independence in our borough. Partygoers are invited to have a drink, mingle with Brooklyn authors and publishers, discover […]
Scrappy Reading Series (In Person)
Five emerging and established writers will answer this question at this month’s edition of the Scrappy Reading Series, supported by the Red Hook Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. Join us as these writers share how they interpret “scrappy,” and how they embody this in their writing lives, personal lives, love lives, and any other […]
Writing with a Sense of Place: Celebrating The Common’s 15th Anniversary (In Person & Virtual)
The Common, a literary magazine that explores our sense of place, celebrates their 15th anniversary with a panel of writers discussing how themes of home, immigration, and belonging reverberate in their recent work, featuring Emily Everett, managing editor and author of the Reese’s Book Club Pick All That Life Can Afford; Olivia Wolfgang-Smith, former social […]
Our New Histories: The Debut BIPOC Writers Reshaping Literature (In Person)
Restless Books, Tin House, Amistad, and Ecco present four ascendent authors whose first releases shook 2025. Camille U. Adams traces her family’s legacy of secrets and abandonment in the Trinidadian memoir How to Be Unmothered; individual longing and a Yoruba prophecy collide in Olufunke Grace Bankole’s intergenerational novel The Edge of Water; Tramaine Suubi follows […]
Radical Histories: A Roundtable of Korean/American Authors (In Person)
Moderated by Jane Yong Kim, Korean American authors Alice Sola Kim, Cathy Park Hong, Ed Park, Gina Chung, and Hannah Bae discuss their work in relation to the spirit of radicalism in the Korean diasporic imaginary as exemplified by the latest installments in Kaya Press’ Magpie Series for Korean Literature in Translation: Djuna‘s speculative fiction […]
Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize Shortlist Reading (In Person)
This BPL Book Prize event features the shortlisted authors for 2025. Past winners include Kaveh Akbar and Blair L.M. Kelley. This talk will feature current shortlist nominees in conversation with Jessica Harwick, prize judge and BPL librarian. The Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize was established in 2015 by the Brooklyn Eagles– young, engaged Brooklynites who […]
Beyond the Acclaimed Debut (In Person)
The John Leonard Prize celebrates the year’s best first book. Incredible attention is lavished upon debut authors, but once it’s time to get back to work, how do acclaimed writers work within the limelight and around expectation to carry on with their careers? 2024 Leonard Prize finalist Carrie Courogen (Miss May Does Not Exist), 2024 […]
St. Francis College New Releases (In Person)
This event will feature new releases in various genres and exciting work from St. Francis College faculty and students. Get ready to be transported through time and space by these lively narratives. Readers will include Theo Gangi, Caroline Hagood, Jive Poetic, Mitchell Levenberg, Jason Dubow, Marielena Gomez, and Clarence A. Haynes. St Francis College Auditorium […]
Mental Health & Creativity: The Tortured Artist, or the Artist Tortures? (Virtual)
Queer Indie and the Writing Community Chat Show will host an interactive, live-streamed panel that will discuss the correlation of creativity with mental health. Topics will include the stereotype of the tortured artist, psychological blocks, how to persevere and find inspiration during mental health struggles, and whether suffering is necessary to understand the human condition […]
Weaver of Dreams, Voice of Conscience: Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o (In Person)
In May, the groundbreaking Kenyan writer and activist Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o died. Ngũgĩ braved prison, exile, and beatings—and attacks on his family—to speak the truth about both colonial and “post-colonial” Africa. He wrote plays, novels, essays, poetry, and criticism. His novel Devil on the Cross was composed on toilet paper in prison. Ngũgĩ called on […]
Italian-American Immigrant Dreams (In Person)
Come join us at the Old Stone House of Brooklyn for a special Brooklyn Book Festival Bookend Event celebrating Italian-American immigrant stories. Authors Suzanne Uttaro Samuels (Seeds of the Pomegranate), F.K. Clementi (South of My Dreams: Finding My American Home), and Cathy Gigante-Brown (Immigrant Hearts) will read from and discuss their new novels and their […]
The Future is Latinx: New Generation (Virtual)
Join us for a discussion on the challenges faced by Latinx writers entering the literary world, and how they balance the pressure of writing for the Latinx community while still reaching wider audiences. Panelists and debut novels include: Veronica Chapa (Malinalli), Carolina Flórez-Cerchiaro (Bochica), Alejandro Heredia (Loca), and Sofia Robleda (Daughter of Fire). Moderated by […]
Ctrl+Alt+Lit: Fan Fiction, Zines, and Independent Literature (In Person & Virtual)
From Tumblr threads to self-published novels, alternative literature is rewriting how we tell stories and who gets to tell them. Ctrl+Alt+Lit will explore how alt-lit remixes cultural narratives and creates community beyond traditional publishing, diving into a world shaped by parasocial relationships, the internet, and all of the media therein, including fan fiction, zines, newsletters, […]
Tipsy Bee Author Spelling Bee & Book Fair (In Person)
The Tipsy Bee returns with our grown-up spelling bee! Root for your favorite authors – Abraham Chang, Erin Crosby Eckstine, Danny Goodman, Elyse Graham, Jakob Guanzon, and Olivia Wolfgang-Smith – as they try to spell literary-inspired words. Last year’s champ Hyeseung Song will be there as an official lifeline for struggling spellers. As the featured […]
EVENT UPDATE: SOLD OUT: 2025 Day of Translation: Keynote Conversation with Jhumpa Lahiri and Katie Kitamura (In Person)
The 2025 Day of Translation, presented by the Center for the Art of Translation, culminates in a keynote conversation featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jhumpa Lahiri and bestselling author Katie Kitamura. Translation, broadly conceived, lies at the heart of Jhumpa Lahiri and Katie Kitamura’s work. For Lahiri, translation is more than an art; it’s a profound […]
The Harlem Writers Guild Celebrates 75 Years of Literary Excellence (Virtual)
Founded in 1950, the Harlem Writers Guild proudly celebrates 75 years of literary excellence and its mission to amplify African American voices. Join us for an unforgettable evening honoring the world’s oldest continuous organization of Black writers. Hear powerful readings from the works of legendary members—John Oliver Killens, Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, Ossie Davis, Ruby […]
Under the BQE Flash Reading and Birthday Party (In Person)
Under the BQE Press invites the NYC writing and publishing community to help them celebrate their first year as an indie publisher at their favorite bar, which is as close to under the overpass as you can get – Mama Tried! Flash readings (under 5 minutes) from forthcoming and published novelists Judson Merrill, Brian Russ, […]
Behind the Pen (In Person)
Join A Public Space Editorial Fellows Yasmin Bashir and Theodore Heil for a discussion with Writing Fellows Kasia Nikhamina, Raina Wellman, and Yaw Atuobi about craft, language, translation, folklore, and literature that inspires their writing. This panel offers a look at how each of the writers’ work is thematically entangled with one another. Unnameable Books […]
Selected Shorts: Gary Gulman, On the Couch (In Person & Virtual)
It’s September, which means school is back in session and your shrink has returned from their August escape. Join us as actors Claire Danes (Homeland), Troy Iwata (The Daily Show), Kenice Mobley (The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon), and BD Wong (Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens) perform funny, stirring, and insightful stories about therapy, therapists, and that eternal search for inner peace. Hosted […]
What We Didn’t Expect: MUTHA x Pen Parentis x Lofty Pigeon Get Lit(erary), from Panel to Party (In Person)
Don’t believe what’s expected—reality is a shock in all aspects and stages of parenthood and partnership. MUTHA and Pen Parentis present a night out with parents who are writers/artists across genres that take on taboo topics: novelist Domenica Ruta (All The Mothers); cartoonist Rachel Deutsch (The Mother); and Hip Mama founder and memoirist Ariel Gore […]
Tour of Tove Jansson & The Moomins: The Door Is Always Open (In Person)
Join us for a guided tour of Tove Jansson and the Moomins: The Door Is Always Open, an exhibition that explores the queer Finnish author’s impact on children’s literature and social-emotional learning through her beloved Moomin characters, bold political cartoons, and reflective adult literature. The author’s niece, Sophia Jansson, will lead a tour, sharing reflections […]
Tables of Contents Reading Series: Alam! Schaefer! Park! (In Person)
Join us at MADE in Sunset Park for our next reading on Tuesday, September 16th! We have an amazing lineup featuring Rumaan Alam (Entitlement), Lucas Schaefer (The Slip) and Silvia Park (Luminous). Each ticket includes three small dishes inspired by the passages, and one complimentary cocktail mixed by our friends Sammi Katz and Olivia McGiff […]
We are the Genre (In Person)
Writers Jordan E. Franklin, Caroline Hagood, Paula Cisewski, Matthew Daddona, and Jiwon Choi will embark on a candid exploration of how we embody our own forms of writing. Whether we’re engaged in poetry, fiction, memoir, biography, etc., we can’t help but go beyond the borders of genre to create work that endeavors to fully capture […]
a/wake in the water: voices in protest (In Person)
“Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress truth.” – Wole Soyinka. Join our community of poets, spoken word performers, writers, artists, and musicians for a gathering of community, performance, and artivisim, featuring performers Edward Currelley, Lorraine Currelley, and Betty Pierre. Mott Haven Library – 321 East 140th Street, […]
Amor Sin Fronteras: Latinx Love Stories That Break the Mold (Virtual)
Join acclaimed Dominican and Latinx romance authors Adriana Herrera, Lydia San Andres, Ambar Cordova, and Natalie Caña for a heartfelt conversation on writing love in all its complexity. This panel explores how culture, community, and identity shape stories of desire, joy, and healing. From steamy tropes to tender truths, these authors are redefining the genre […]
Franklin Park Lit Night (In Person)
Two popular series based at Crown Heights’s famed Franklin Park Bar and Beer Garden team up for a fun and enlightening evening! The Franklin Park Reading Series and World Trans Forum host authors Amie Barrodale (Trip, You Are Having a Good Time), Zefyr Lisowski (Uncanny Valley Girls), Chet’la Sebree (Blue Opening), and Emily Zhou (Girlfriends) […]
#YeahYouWriteBKBF (In Person)
An evening of readings, #LiteraryCocktails, food, fun, #OpenMic, Rapid-Fire Q&A, and book sales/signing with Moon Unit Zappa, Lauren Morrow, and Princess Joy L. Perry. We’re celebrating the Brooklyn Book Festival’s 20th Anniversary and #YeahYouWrite’s 10th! Someday Bar NYC – 364 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217 – accessible entrance & restroom https://yeahyouwriteevents.com/
Read Around the World: Connecting Cultures Through Storytime (In Person)
Join Global School Brooklyn for a vibrant multilingual book event for families, featuring a rotating schedule of read-alouds in English, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Creole, German, and Chinese. Enjoy hands-on arts and crafts and browse a curated selection of children’s books in multiple languages. Meet Alyssa Reynoso-Morris, Emma Otheguy, Aitalina Romanova, Denise Adusei, Arlène Elizabeth Casimir, […]
Who? New! International
Each season, BKBF presents several international debut authors whom we want to shine the light on for our audience. This year we present Palestinian writer and journalist Yasmin Zaher (The Coin), British Sri Lankan writer Praveen Herat (Between This World and the Next), and Malaysian Australian creative writing instructor Jessica Zhan Mei Yu (But the […]
Ways of Surviving
In her debut Broughtupsy, Christina Cooke introduces 20-year-old Akúa as she attempts to reconstruct her fractured family by flying from Canada to her native Jamaica to reconnect with her estranged older sister with her younger brother’s ashes in tow. In Madwoman, Chelsea Bieker delves into the heart of what it really means to survive violence […]
An Ode to Irreverence
In Lexi Freiman’s The Book of Ayn, a writer travels from New York to Los Angeles to Lesbos as she searches for artistic and spiritual fulfillment in the path of Ayn Rand. In Rejection: Fictions, Tony Tulathimutte explores how our delusions affect our desire for connection in seven connected stories. In How It Works Out, […]
The Pulp and Quick of Life: Vigdis Hjorth and Eva Baltasar in Conversation
Writers of potent, electrifying, and candid novels – Vigdis Hjorth (If Only, trans. from Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund) and Eva Baltasar (Mammoth, trans from Catalan by Julia Sanches) – come together to discuss passion and disenchantment. If Only tells the story of a young woman who begins a tumultuous affair, a cascading fantasy that eventually […]
Campus Disturbances
People always say the college years are the best ones of your life. But Kiley Reid, Attica Locke, and Joanna Pearson write otherwise. In Come and Get It, Millie Cousins is focused on graduating with a job and house until she meets Agatha Paul, a visiting professor hoping to find her next great book idea […]
A.I. and the Writer: An Unlikely Friendship – Presented with NYU’s 370J Project.
One novelist, one memoirist and one poet — all working with A.I. as muse, collaborator and inspiration from the early days of generative A.I. to ChatGPT and into an uncertain future. What are the possibilities of A.I. for writers, and what are the perils? Join essayist and author Ethan Gilsdorf (Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks […]
Surviving Coexistence
Genre-abundant writers, poets, and academics Bhanu Kapil (Incubation: A Space for Monsters) and Billy-Ray Belcourt (Coexistence: Stories) convene for an intimate and multifaceted conversation on the ways their work approaches survival – in the face of imperialism, settler-colonialism, misogyny, and more – and the ways they embrace hybridity and invert monstrosity in favor of fluidity, […]
Violent New Lands
In Kevin Barry’s The Heart in Winter, an opium-smoking Irishman and his mail-order bride are on the run in 1890s Montana. In Ye Chun’s Straw Dogs of the Universe, 10-year-old Sixiang journeys across an unfamiliar American landscape in the hopes of finding her long-lost father, who works on the railroads in California. In Like the […]
Sports, Body, and Power
There was a time when YA sports adventures were hampered by outdated gender norms and social expectations. Those days are gone, and Jonah Newman (Out Of Left Field), Molly Horton Booth (King Cheer), and Mad Rupert (Bunt!) are upping the game with their new graphic novels that celebrate the joys of baseball, softball, basketball, and […]
Once Upon A Disappearance
Join Jennifer Croft, Laura van den Berg, and Jáchym Topol in a discussion about disappearances through different lenses—individual, environmental, and psychological. In The Extinction of Irena Rey, eight translators gather at a sprawling house in the ancient woods of Poland, prepared to translate beloved author Irena Rey’s latest work—unprepared to reckon with her sudden disappearance […]
Inner Worlds Intersecting On The Outside
We are the sum of our interactions. Whether they last minutes or decades, each can unearth what we’ve buried deep. Dash Shaw’s Blurry shows how slightly connected strangers can create a kaleidoscope of meaning. Jon Macy’s graphic biography of Modernist genius Djuna Barnes reveals the true identities of her fictional characters. Leela Corman’s Victory Parade […]
Shedding Light, Carrying Light: Bringing Family History into the Future
When you’re raised on a family history of persecution and perseverance, the sense of responsibility for carrying it forward can feel immense. And if you find yourself questioning its expectations while witnessing new menace in the present day, your task as a storyteller can be even more challenging – and more fruitful. Solomon Brager (Heavyweight), […]
Reveling in Vulnerability
Exorcize your demons by tickling them. Cry until you laugh. Order up existential crisis but with sprinkles! Join a down-and-dirty discussion about humor as a way to cope with trauma, addiction, and other fun life stuff with three graphic novelists whose messy, mesmerizing protagonists never give up. Featuring Tara Booth (Processing: 100 Comics That Got […]
The Future is Dystopian
Helen Phillips’ Hum follows May, a wife and a mother who has lost her job to AI after she undergoes an experimental facial surgery that makes her unrecognizable to everyday surveillance. Clare Beams’ The Garden explores the pressures of motherhood as Irene, desperate to start a family, suffers a series of miscarriages and goes to […]
Who? New!
Each season, BKBF presents several debut authors whom we want to shine the light on for our audience. This year we present Danny Goodman (Amerikaland), Eunice Hong (Memento Mori), Ian S. Maloney (South Brooklyn Exterminating), and Mai Sennaar (They Dream in Gold). We welcome special guest, Edwidge Danticat (We’re Alone: Essays, Claire of the Sea […]
History, Reimagined
In this panel, authors Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Kristopher Jansma and Vanessa Chan take us on heartbreaking journeys filled with hope that change will come. Ruffin’s novel, The American Daughters, is a coming-of-age story following Ady, an enslaved young girl who joins a sisterhood of Black women working together to undermine Southern society. In Jansma’s Our […]
The Fantastical and (Not So) Feminine
Short stories are a literary art in themselves, and these authors prove their mastery with new collections centering around womanhood, humanity, and the tenuous boundaries between the real and the unreal. Lena Valencia’s Mystery Lights delves into the fantastic and familiar terrors of life, while Lynn Schmeidler explores what it means to live in a […]
Archives of the Self
In what ways does reckoning with our personal and political histories and archives allow us to reckon with ourselves? New works by Iman Mersal (Traces of Enayat, trans Robin Moger), Daniel Saldaña Paris (Planes Flying Over a Monster, trans Christina MacSweeney and Philip K. Zimmerman), Kateřina Tučková (The Last Goddess, trans Andrew Oakland), and Mircea […]
Writing Our Histories
Amitava Kumar questions what ordinary existence is in his novel My Beloved Life, which tells the story of India’s history over the last 85 years through the lens of a modest father. In Temim Fruchter’s City of Laughter, Shiva, a queer Jewish mythology student, retraces four generations of her family’s secrets in Poland to try […]
Secrets and the Supernatural
In the trilogy’s conclusion, Olivie Blake’s The Atlas Complex, the Alexandrians return to the library in a race for survival, power grabs, and betrayal. In Graveyard Shift, M.L. Rio follows five night shift workers who meet in the local cemetery to unearth the truths lurking in an open grave. In The Sapling Cage, Margaret Killjoy […]
Hallowed Ground: Claiming a Literary Inheritance
In Where We Stand: Speech, Place, Justice (trans Padma Viswanathan), Djamila Ribeiro issues a rallying cry for Black Brazilian feminists to stake their own ground, inspired in many ways by figures such as Sojourner Truth, bell hooks, and Audre Lorde. Meanwhile, new works by Edwidge Danticat (We’re Alone) and Dionne Brand (Salvage: Readings from the […]
Alternate Realities
In Ed Park’s Same Bed Different Dreams, fiction and reality blur across time in an alternate history of Korea. Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland follows Adina as she reports on humanity to her extraterrestrial relatives. This Great Hemisphere by Mateo Askaripour brings us 500 years into the future where the world is divided into the Invisibles and […]
New Works: A Poetry Reading
Poets Kay Gabriel (A Queen in Bucks County), Frederick Joseph (We Alive, Beloved), Megan Pinto (Saints of Little Faith), and Margaret Ray (Good Grief, the Ground) read from their new volumes of poetry. Introduced by Nikay Paredes, Academy of American Poets.
The Search for Belonging
Join Lorrie Moore and Kelly Link as they discuss their new novels about love and transformation. In I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home, Moore’s characters struggle to find their place within their families and their own lives as the narrative jumps between the present and past. The Book of Love follows Laura, […]
Love Is A Fantasy
Go on an epic journey with renowned authors Adrienne Tooley (The Second Son), Ava Reid (A Study in Drowning), Chloe Gong (Foul Heart Huntsman), and Jordan Ifueko (The Maid and the Crocodile) as they discuss the elements that make up a thrilling and swoon-worthy romantasy novel–from a sapphic romance to a gothic Welsh fantasy to […]
When Worlds Collide
New York Times bestselling author Amélie Wen Zhao (Song of Silver, Flame Like Night), New York Times bestselling author Dustin Thao (When Haru was Here) and Pura Belpré honoree Camille Gomera-Tavarez (The Girl, The Ring, & The Baseball Bat) discuss how they tackle dreams, grief, epic battles, and relationships in alternate worlds that straddle reality […]
Great Expectations
Whether it’s creating an alter-ego for yourself in an online role-playing game, traversing the streets of New York to film a mockumentary about Ping-Pong, letting go of perfectionism in the wake of major tragedy, or entering into an admittedly hare-brained love coaching scheme, we often go to great lengths to contend with the expectations of […]
Writing Resistance
From Mumbai to Tenochtitlan—the ancient capital of the Aztec empire—and a fictional city called Nevers; disparate landscapes come to life in the voices of their inhabitants. In their latest books, authors Devika Rege (Quarterlife), Álvaro Enrigue (You Dreamed of Empires, trans Natasha Wimmer), and Dorothy Tse (Owlish, trans Natascha Bruce) track the collision of worlds […]
Are We Okay?
Join Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Jas Hammonds (Thirsty), illustrator and memoirist Jonell Joshua (How Do I Draw These Memories?), and New York Times bestselling author John Schu (Louder Than Hunger) for a conversation about the challenges and freedoms of writing about teen’s mental health and its effect on their relationships. Moderated by Elvira K. […]
Relationships Under Stress
In K-Ming Chang’s Cecilia, a woman named Seven returns to her obsessive girlhood friendship with Cecilia, who has reappeared in her life, resulting in a fever of eroticism, grotesque desire, and violence. Chris Knapp’s States of Emergency intertwines a failing marriage with the failing world, charting how a relationship might come together (or fall apart) […]
Violent Inheritances
Authors Ibtisam Azem (The Book of Disappearance, trans Sinan Antoon), Clyo Mendoza (Fury, trans Christina MacSweeney), and Jean-Baptiste Del Amo (The Son of Man, trans Frank Wynne) examine the consequences of intimate and global violence in their work. Focusing their attention on the turbulent landscapes of contested land, occupied cities, and fractured family relationships, these […]
Our Neck of the Woods
Join three authors whose books pulsate with hope, love, and human connection. The pandemic sets the stage for Regina Porter’s The Rich People Have Gone Away, where ordinary New Yorkers are brought together by the search for a missing woman. Lisa Ko’s Memory Piece follows three lifelong friends from the 1980s to the 2040s as […]
The Nature of a Crime
In False Idols, the second novel of A Reluctant King series, K’wan explores the intersection of crime and power with the King family’s fight to reclaim their throne in the criminal underworld. Kate Brody’s Rabbit Hole follows a woman twisted by grief as she risks it all to solve her sister’s cold case disappearance. In […]
The Digital Age
In Justin Taylor’s Reboot, a washed-up actor embarks on a quest to revive the cult TV show that catapulted him to teenage fame. In Kevin Holohan’s So You Wanna Run a Country? hopelessly unqualified contestants compete to rule small nations on a reality TV show. In Users by Colin Winnette, the fragility of connection and […]
Containing Multitudes: Memoirs of Self-Realization
Beyond just chronicling a life, the memoir has long been a site for the discussion of self-realization and discovery, of inquisition and reckoning. In each of their books, Tracy O’Neill (Woman of Interest), Lucy Sante (I Heard Her Call My Name), and Carvell Wallace (Another Word for Love) explore themselves on the page, digging into […]
Not All That Glitters is Gold
Hari Kunzru’s Blue Ruin, Adelle Waldman’s Help Wanted, and Ryan Chapman’s The Audacity probe the dynamics of class in our ever-modernizing world. Blue Ruin follows an art school graduate whose promising future comes crashing down during the pandemic. Help Wanted follows the low-wage employees of Team Movement, whose lives cycle through grueling days of few […]
A New Kind of Hunger
Flawed, sharp, and messy characters on journeys of self-discovery and indulging in sexually explicit love affairs. Two women bond over their shared desire for pain and pleasure in Exhibit by R.O. Kwon. In Tongues by Thomas Grattan follows a young gay man who moves to NYC after a bad breakup, where he gets hired as […]
Brooklyn Public Library’s Book Prize Winners’ Panel with Katy Waldman
Hear the winners of this year’s Brooklyn Public Library’s Book Prize discuss their work with journalist Katy Waldman, who will delve into the books’ inception and creation. Each fall, Brooklyn Public Library honors outstanding works of nonfiction and fiction/poetry with the BPL Book Prize. Past winners include Catherine Lacey, Lamya H, John Paul Brammer, Xochitl Gonzalez, […]
Through The Looking Glass presented by the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival and the Center for Fiction
Join Caribbean-born, global legends Lorna Goodison from Jamaica, Esmeralda Santiago from Puerto Rico, and Barbara Jenkins of Trinidad & Tobago – natural-born storytellers, who as emigrants keenly observed the world around them with insight, grace, and sharpness, reflecting a deep connection to the cultures, countries and indigenous stories that flowed from their memories to the […]
Twists and Turns
Teen reads that are impossible to put down! NYT bestselling author Tiffany D. Jackson (The Weight of Blood) delivers an updated homage to Stephen King’s Carrie with a modern twist that explores racism within a small town. A suspenseful space opera by Eliot Schrefer (The Brightness Between Us) will have you holding your breath until […]
NBF Presents: Archival (R)evolutions
National Book Award–honored authors consider the power of archives and evolution—within literature, across genres, and in the building of literary communities. Moderated by Ruth Dickey, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation. Presented in partnership with the Brooklyn Book Festival and the National Book Foundation.
Where We Come From
Home will always call out to you, no matter where you go. The story of a couple meeting in modern-day New York is intimately entangled with the histories of their parents’ first loves in the Virgin Islands and Ghana. In County Mayo, Ireland, the daily lives of long-time residents are threaded through with loss, disillusion, […]
Escaping Family
From existential crises and trauma to months spent in quarantine, there are plenty of reasons one may feel the need to escape their family. Award-winning novelist Bernice L. McFadden (Sugar), New York Times best-selling author Emma Straub (All Adults Here), and critically acclaimed author Karolina Waclawiak (Life Events) discuss what happens when characters leave their […]
New Works – A Poetry Reading
Poets Aria Aber (Hard Damage), Diannely Antigua (Ugly Music), Ricardo Alberto Maldonado (The Life Assignment), and John Murillo (Kontemporary Amerikan) will read from their recently published volumes of poetry. Introduced by Nikay Paredes, Academy of American Poets.
Who? New!
Each season the Brooklyn Book Festival selects a few debut authors whose books we think shouldn’t be missed. This year’s debut book picks include: The New Wilderness – Diane Cook, Like A Bird – Fariha Róisín, My Mother’s House – Francesca Momplaisir, What’s Left of Me Is Yours – Stephanie Scott, Whiteout Conditions– Tariq Shah, […]
Poetry of Fiction
Even in prose, some narratives are best expressed through the rhythms and techniques of poetry. Through precise and artful language, these innovative and observant poets and authors explore the nature of time, the experience of consciousness, and the aftermath of history. Join award-winning poet Carolyn Forché (In the Lateness of the World), Pulitzer Prize–winning poet […]
Illustrator Smackdown
Let’s get ready to rumble! You won’t want to miss this epic live-action drawing competition refereed by the brilliant and award-winning artist Raúl The Third (VAMOS! Let’s Go Eat) and featuring talented illustrators Ebony Glenn (Not Quite Snow White), Ruth Chan (The Great Indoors), Juana Medina (We Are the Change), and Kevin Sherry (Squidding Around: […]
Imagining Other Americas
Presented with the New York Review of Books. We are living in an America that was, not very long ago, unimaginable to many of us: a country whose political life, economic prospects, and natural environment all resemble something out of dystopian (or, in the case of the environment, science-fiction). This panel gathers together a varied […]
Art Activism and Curatorial Perspectives
Kimberly Drew, arts writer, curator, and activist, This Is What I Know About Art, in conversation with celebrated photographer, artist, curator and author, Deborah Willis talking about art as both a reflection on society and an opportunity to change society and make inclusive space for artists. Moderated by Naomi Extra, scholar, poet and writer.
Worlds Within Worlds: When Fantasy Gets Real
What do you draw on — literally — to put an imaginary world with real stakes on the graphic novel page? Carey Pietsch discusses pulling readers into the D&D world of the #1 New York Times best-selling Adventure Zone series; Isabel Greenberg’s Glass Town reveals how the Brontë children co-created a fictional world out of […]
World Builders of the Past and Future
World Builders of the Past and Future, Ilube Nommo Award–winning author Tochi Onyebuchi (Riot Baby) and #1 NYT bestselling author Christopher Paolini (To Sleep in a Sea of Stars) team up for a wide-ranging discussion about their newest books, world building in science fiction and fantasy, writing for a YA and an adult audience, and […]
Colson Whitehead & Arundhati Roy – A Reading
Colson Whitehead and Arundhati Roy, two writers whose work has become powerfully embedded in our imagination over the past few decades, read from their recent work, followed by Q & A. Whitehead, winner of the 2017 BoBi award, will read from his novel, The Nickel Boys, winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Roy, […]
Tayari Jones & Brit Bennett in Conversation
Join The Vanishing Half author Brit Bennett and An American Marriage author Tayari Jones for a conversation about their timely works of fiction, which offer nuanced insights about race, family, and love in America. Moderated by David Ulin.
The Past is Present
Poets Mark Bibbins (13th Balloon), Eduardo C. Corral (Guillotine), Hafizah Geter (Un-American), and Jonah Mixon-Webster (Stereo (TYPE)) read from their new collections, and discuss how history and legacy serve as a lens in their work, through which to view the present moment. Moderated by Tina Chang, Brooklyn Poet Laureate.
Leslie Stein & Adrian Tomine in Conversation
Leslie Stein‘s graphic memoir I Know You Rider takes place over the 12 month period surrounding an abortion, tackling the complex subject of reproductive choice —and choice more generally — candidly and philosophically. Adrian Tomine’s The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist is a comedic memoir about fandom, fame, and other embarrassments from the life of […]
Love and Resistance
Love And Resistance Presented With The Center For Fiction. Join three powerhouse Latinx authors, Angie Cruz, Jaquira Díaz and Carolina De Robertis, in conversation on the themes of love and resistance in their work, and on the power of intersectional Latinx literatures to break silence, challenge oppression, and cultivate joy and justice.
Time Travelers – From Creation Myths to Future Worlds
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Alexis Wright, two giants of contemporary literature, share creative visions that encompass millennia. For more than a half-century, Kenyan author Ngũgĩ has been creating a highly-influential body of work ranging from novels, stories, plays, and memoir to radical essays on literary decolonization and language. His latest work, The Perfect Nine, marks […]
Brave New Worlds
New York Times bestselling author Libba Bray (The King of Crows), acclaimed author Justin A. Reynolds (Early Departures), and debut novelist Ryan La Sala (Reverie) discuss dreams, death, destiny, and teens making big choices in worlds that blur the lines between reality and fantasy. Moderated by author Patrice Caldwell (A Phoenix First Must Burn).
Coming of Age in Challenging Times
Childhood can seem to exist in a bubble, defined by the rituals of family and home. But outside pressures are never far off. In Romesh Gunesekera’s Suncatcher, a young boy in 1960s Sri Lanka revels in the thrill of the make-believe, while gradually becoming aware of the social and religious forces that threaten to divide […]
Women On The Verge
These authors’ books may focus on women at different stages and from different walks of life, but they are all united by their common desire to break out of the box patriarchy places them in. Join critically acclaimed novelist Lauren Francis-Sharma (Book of the Little Axe), highly anticipated debut novelist Emily Temple (The Lightness), and […]
Of Mystic Women, Witches and Tomboys
Presented by TOPPLE Books. Melissa Faliveno’s Tomboyland navigates the mysterious terrain of androgyny and bisexuality, womanhood and rage, religion and myth, loneliness and love. Ultimately, she asks what it means to live in the spaces between and what it means to come home. In An American Covenant: A Story of Women, Mysticism, and the Making […]
I Think We Are Alone Now
An Iranian journalist heads to the front lines of war in Iraq and Syria. A girl and her father are the last two people on Earth. And in a town ravaged by environmental disaster, a cult leader promises to bring rain. Where can these characters find humanity in such dystopian worlds? Join novelist Salar Abdoh […]
Putting the I in Graphic
Writing down memories is an intimate act; drawing the remembered times is even more so, whether they’re yours or of those around you. Join these authors on the journey. Tyler Feder‘s Dancing at the Pity Party follows her journey dealing with her mother’s diagnosis and eventual death of cancer, while Mike Hawthorne’s Happiness Will Follow […]
Dark Lords of Empire
Corporate greed and extreme inequality loom large in these authors’ most recent books, which investigate the human implications of national politics through the lens of a marginalized immigrant family in one case and inter-class relationships in the other. Join Pulitzer Prize-winning author and playwright Ayad Akhtar (Homeland Elegies) and National Book Award finalist Emily St. […]
Outcasts and Outsiders
Children required to be mature beyond their years, adults seeking lives worth writing about, and other fascinating characters populate the exciting novels and stories of these award-winning authors. Join Pulitzer Prize finalist Lydia Millet (A Children’s Bible), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and novelist Héctor Tobar (The Last Great Road Bum), and best-selling author Lidia Yuknavitch (Verge) […]
NBF Presents
Join four authors honored by the 2019 National Book Awards for a conversation on contemporary literature, recognition, and cross-genre Black storytelling. Featuring Kwame Alexander (The Undefeated, Longlist, Young People’s Literature), Jericho Brown (The Tradition, Finalist, Poetry), Marlon James (Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Finalist, Fiction), and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real […]
Love In A Time of Ruins
What happens when the world comes to a standstill, touch is forbidden, and everything we’ve known must be reimagined? Who can we turn to? In what promises to be an entertaining and candid discussion, award-winning author Rochelle Alers (The Seaside Café), USA Today best-selling author Beverly Jenkins (Bring on the Blessings), and Wayne Jordan (Promise […]
Ripples of Violence: Personal and Literary
Join novelists Adania Shibli (Minor Detail), Alain Mabanckou (The Death of Comrade President), and Juan Pablo Villalobos (I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me) as they discuss how the repercussions of violence are experienced on a literary level, and felt across generations and through history, and how the personal and political intersect in their works […]
Trouble The Water
Racism, classism, distrust, and surveillance are just a few of the challenges one faces when trying to make earnest connections in lonely and trying times. But these stories just might contain the clues for a better future. Join award-winning novelist Kelli Jo Ford (Crooked Hallelujah), 5 Under 35 honoree Tracy O’Neill (Quotients), and New York […]
Multiple Witnesses, Multiple Realities
Who do we trust to tell a story and who are the true witnesses to a reality impossible to understand from just one angle? Featuring Fernanda Melchor, Marcial Gala, and Nona Fernandez, this panel delves into the work of three vibrant new writers from Latin America whose novels provide polyphonic examinations of collective reckoning. Fernanda […]
Laughing Through Tears
Laughing Through Tears. A woman about to marry someone she doesn’t love. Gay men who can’t stop lying. A struggling writer’s desperate quest for connection. Black women who defy societal expectations to explore their dreams and desires. These characters may sound troubled, but what their authors have in common is a dark sense of humor […]
Drawing Our Stories
What are our stories? As we grow up and figure out our place in the world, we find them — or create them. The pieces that make them up encompass queerness, racism, family history, politics, sexism, activism, and sports in this discussion with Mike Curato (Flamer), Kiku Hughes (Displacement), and Gene Luen Yang (Dragon Hoops). […]
Icons of American Culture
A handsome baseball star, a Los Angeles talent manager who was in all the wrong places at all the wrong times, and a certain “nasty woman” who won a certain popular vote, reimagined through historical fiction—these characters prove that fame, in any field, has its price. Join celebrated writer and filmmaker Nelson George (The Darkest […]
Under the Skin
How is history lived and felt—embodied—in different times and places? How does it persist as memory, an almost tactile presence just beneath the surface? In Argentine writer Andrés Neuman’s Fracture, the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster provokes a personal reckoning for a globe-trotting Japanese executive, a survivor of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Jamaican writer Curdella Forbes’s […]
A Winning Personality
A boy who believes in fairytales, a young psychic who can speak to the dead, besties about to break up, and three girls who take down a sexist list ranking their classmates by their looks. Author and librarian Betsy Bird leads characters from stories by Zoraida Córdova (The Way to Rio Luna), Gilbert Ford (The […]
Makers of the Road
What are the histories we don’t hear? A jazz legend shines brightly during a dark time in his career; a mother tells moving stories of China’s Cultural Revolution to her daughter; and, in a master comics journalist’s latest epic, the Dene Nation of Canada’s sprawling Northwest Territories grapples with the economic reward and devastating cultural […]
The Path To Black Joy
It gets better — but the path to joy is never straight. From seeing to being, three Black Queer authors: George M. Johnson (All Boy’s Aren’t Blue), Jamal Jordan (Queer Love in Color) and Darnell L. Moore (No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black & Free in America) share their journey to fully […]
Secrets and Lies
New York Times bestselling authors Karen McManus (One of Us Is Next) and Rory Power (Burn Our Bodies Down) join acclaimed author Camryn Garrett (Full Disclosure) in a riveting conversation about fear, deception, and the lengths characters will go to keep some truths hidden. Moderated by debut author of K-pop Confidential, Stephan Lee.
Soul Of The City
From an imagined New York City that literally comes alive, to an alternate American history that posits a militaristic Empire City, to the reality of police brutality on the streets of Los Angeles, these authors capture the essence of contemporary American urban life, along with its diversity, complexity, and flaws. Join Dayton Literary Peace Prize […]
Spooky Stories
An eccentric family of witches, malicious spirits wreaking havoc all over town, a road trip full of monsters and mayhem—‘tis the season for spooky stories that will give you, well, goosebumps. Join authors R.L. Stine (Goosebumps), Claribel Ortega (Ghost Squad), and Sophie Escabasse (Witches of Brooklyn) as they chat about all things that go bump […]
In Search of New Lands
From Massachusetts to the Middle East to colonial Jamaica, these books take readers around the world as their characters search for a way to live life on their own terms. Join debut novelists Zaina Arafat (You Exist Too Much) and Maisy Card (These Ghosts Are Family) and award-winning author Lily King (Writers & Lovers) for […]
Unraveling The Past
Though what emerges are two very different reads, both authors share an investigative, almost true-crime approach to their overlapping subjects: where Nick Flynn (This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire) goes on a personal detective hunt into the mysterious events of his family’s traumatic past and his mother’s profound struggles during his childhood, […]
Failed Promise: Talking About My Generation
There are moments in the lives of countries and generations when the future appears to burn especially bright with hope and youthful promise. But what happens when dreams sour, when pioneering generations lurch into middle-age? Daniel Galera’s Twenty After Midnight follows a circle of literary provocateurs whose webzine revolutionized the internet and shook up Brazilian […]
On Borders, Real and Imagined
What is a border and who or what are they meant to contain? Poets and writers Claudia Rankine (Just Us: An American Conversation), Cathy Park Hong (Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning), and New York Times culture writer Jenna Wortham (Black Futures) discuss borders and their many manifestations through genre, race and ethnicity, migration, the […]
Facing Your Fears
New York Times bestselling author Chris Grabenstein (Mr. Lemoncello and the Titanium Ticket) joins two debut standouts, Jessica Kim (Stand Up, Yumi Chung!) and Janae Marks (From the Desk of Zoe Washington), to discuss how their characters face their fears—whether that be a death-defying scavenger hunt, telling jokes on stage, or finding the truth about […]
Calling All Fawnings
TUI T. SUTHERLAND is the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Wings of Fire series, the Menagerie trilogy, and the Pet Trouble series, as well as a contributing author to the bestselling Spirit Animals and Seekers series (as part of the Erin Hunter team). Join her as she reads from her […]
Transcending Grief
Although these authors explore the tragedy of losing family members and friends, they also highlight the triumph of finding new life in the vacuums every loss leaves behind. Join debut novelist Ilana Masad (All My Mother’s Lovers), National Book Award–winning novelist Sigrid Nunez (What Are You Going Through), and National Humanities Medal recipient Joyce Carol […]
Crimes and Misdemeanors
A Texas ranger searches for a missing child and encounters forces of white supremacy. A journalist defies the warnings of police and investigates the murder of a woman with whom he had a one-night stand. And, in a new collection, writers use fiction to explore nicotine and addiction. Don’t miss best-selling author Lee Child (The […]
Writing the Past and Present
Salman Rushdie, the author most recently of Quichotte,and Maaza Mengiste, editor of Addis Ababa Noir and author of The Shadow King discuss the influence and inspiration of historical texts and structures on their writing, plus spy literature, noir and the impact of immigrant writers on American literature. Moderated by Leigh Haber.
Graphix Con
Friendship can be super complicated, really intense, and totally embarrassing—especially when magic sketchbooks, broken hearts, alien adventures, and loads of family drama are involved! Join comics expert Calvin Reid as he celebrates the 15th anniversary of the Graphix imprint with Varian Johnson and Shannon Wright (Twins), Maria Scrivan (Nat Enough), Kristen Gudsnuk (Making Friends: Back […]
Care and Crisis Through Theatre
Care and Crisis through Theatre presented with the Whiting Foundation. Join us for a discussion with Will Arbery (Heroes of the Fourth Turning), Amy Herzog (4000 Miles), Lynn Nottage (Ruined, Sweat), and Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop) – moderated by Soraya Nadia McDonald, award-winning cultural critic for The Undefeated, ESPN’s premiere platform covering race, […]
Raise Your Voice
New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu (Skyhunter), Stonewall award winner Brandy Colbert (The Voting Booth), and debut talent Kim Johnson (This Is My America) discuss authoritarianism, voting rights, and the American justice system in an important conversation about power, privilege, and teens getting political. Moderated by Daniel Nayeri (Everything Sad Is Untrue).
Forbidden Love
A student’s identity is at odds with his community. A teenage girl develops a relationship with her English teacher. Together, these authors raise questions about how conceptions of race, gender, class, and sexuality can shape ourselves and our relationships. Join debut novelists Kate Elizabeth Russell (My Dark Vanessa) and Brandon Taylor (Real Life) for a […]
An Exploratory and Cosmic Conversation
In a conversation that promises to span topics as cosmic as outer space, exoplanets, and black holes, and as earthbound as writing, gender politics, memoir, and educational YouTube — join the New York Times in conversation with two of today’s leading astrophysicists. Times Book Review writer and editor Gal Beckerman will moderate the discussion with […]
DTR (Defining the Relationship)
Join bestselling YA authors Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed (Yes No Maybe So), Leah Johnson (You Should See Me in a Crown), and Kacen Callender (Felix Ever After) as they discuss the life-defining relationships explored in their recent novels. Moderated by Caleb Roehrig (The Fell of Dark). Whether it’s canvassing for change with a new-friend-turned-love-interest, […]
In Conversation with Alison Bechdel
Groundbreaking Eisner Award-winning graphic memoirist Alison Bechdel (Fun Home) discusses her lifelong fascination with fitness crazes, and the search for self-transcendence that she found beneath it, with cartoonist Eric Orner, author of the forthcoming Smahtguy. Her new book The Secret to Superhuman Strength, documenting this journey with everyone from Jack LaLanne to Adrienne Rich in […]
Blackout
A power outage. A sweltering summer night. The glowing warmth and electricity of Black teens in love. Come celebrate the beauty and magic that can be found on a starry night in New York City at this blockbuster panel as six bestselling and award-winning authors—Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, […]
Blurred Realities
A dystopian London, a child caught in the midst of a deadly epidemic, and a grieving taxi driver in a ghostly Washington, D.C. Join the authors of A River Called Time (Courttia Newland), Phase Six (Jim Shepard), and Creatures of Passage (Morowa Yejidé) for a conversation on what draws them to speculative fiction, from world-building […]
Hope, Possibility, & Reckoning
Poets Camonghne Felix (Build Yourself a Boat), Taylor Johnson (Inheritance), Naomi Shihab Nye (Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems), and Khadijah Queen (Anodyne) will discuss how poetry provides us with new ways to reckon with and understand our intersecting pasts, presents, and futures, and in doing so, builds new pathways towards hope and possibility. […]
Madness and Society
What forces—both internal and external—cause a mind to dangerously fray and unravel? For the groundbreaking scientists in Chilean author Benjamin Labatut’s When We Cease to Understand the World (translated by Adrian Nathan West), knowledge comes at a high cost. In Brazilian writer Beatriz Bracher’s Antonio (translated by Adam Morris), meanwhile, social constraints and family secrets […]
Richard Wright Today
Presented by the Center for Fiction and the Poetry Society of America. The work of Richard Wright has never felt more necessary and prescient, with the recent publication of his restored novel The Man Who Lived Underground and the launch of Seeing Into Tomorrow, a major public art project in Brooklyn featuring haiku he wrote […]
Sexuality and Self
Sexuality, in its various forms—as a source of self-assertion and defiance, mystery and wonder, power and control—is a crucial feature of modern identity. From the refugee camps of Eritrean-Ethiopian author Sulaiman Addonia’s Silence Is My Mother Tongue to the magical landscapes of British-Jamaican author Leone Ross’s Popisho and the gritty French milieux of Virginie Despentes’ […]
The Thin Line Between Horror and Reality
Contemporary Latin American authors frequently explore the tension between horror and humanity, unearthing personal and historical trauma while examining the dark side of our interconnected world. From those intimately affected by violence in Colombian Juan Gabriel Vásquez‘s Songs for the Flames (translated by Anne McLean), to the sociopolitical horror of Argentine Mariana Enríquez‘s The Dangers […]
The Burden of Memory
In three astonishing new novels, the past hovers over the present like a ghost. In Italian writer Andrea Bajani’s If You Kept a Record of Sins (translated by Elizabeth Harris), a mother’s abandonment lingers on in the memory of her grown son. Meanwhile, the protagonist of Sri Lankan author Anuk Arudpragasam’s A Passage North, contends […]
All in the Family
A family wrestles with the decision of whether or not to have a child in Peter Ho Davies’s A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself. In Brandon Hobson’s The Removed, a fractured family mourns the killing of their teenage son as their annual family bonfire approaches. Two mothers reckon with their marriage and their relationship […]
A Place Called Home
Three writers whose acute sense of place is often sharpened by reflections about home—whether one they’ve left, one they’ve found (sometimes on the way to somewhere else), or ones their writing has brought to life for themselves. A conversation with Rachel Kushner (The Hard Crowd), Jerald Walker (How to Make a Slave and Other Essays), […]
Building Worlds in Speculative Storytelling
From creating slice-of-life cyclops and mermaid stories to horror-infused dramas and Afrofuturist epics, worldbuilding—complete with specific rules, cultures, and logic—is no small feat. Join creators Tim Fielder (Infinitum), Kat Leyh (Thirsty Mermaids), John Jennings (After the Rain), and Aminder Dhaliwal (Cyclopedia Exotica) as they discuss the unique challenges and joys of speculative storytelling and how […]
Conversation with Henry Winkler & Lin Oliver
Actor Henry Winkler and SCBWI executive director Lin Oliver will discuss the next hilarious, action-packed adventure in their New York Times bestselling Alien Superstar series: HOLLYWOOD VS. THE GALAXY. Buddy Burger is a young alien who escapes his planet only to end up in an even wilder place: Hollywood, California. He lands a role on […]
I’ve Found A Reason
Join two of today’s most celebrated writers, Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen and National Book Award finalist Lauren Groff, for a wide-ranging conversation about their craft. Nguyen’s latest novel, The Committed, follows “the man of two minds” as he takes refuge in 1980s Paris, only to find himself immersed in the city’s criminal underworld. […]
Fighting for Your Life
Getting by is never easy, especially when the odds are overwhelmingly stacked against you. Join Publishers Weekly’s “Writer to Watch” Dantiel Moniz, whose Florida-based story collection Milk Blood Heat explores lives interrupted by violence; award-winning novelist Francisco Goldman, who illuminates the profound challenges of living between worlds in his new novel Monkey Boy; and New […]
Notes on the Future: A Conversation with Toi Dericotte
The Brooklyn Book Festival proudly honors poet Toi Derricotte with its 2021 BoBi Award, the Festival’s highest honor, in recognition of her work as a poet and award-winning writer, and as the co-founder of Brooklyn-based Cave Canem. Award presentation by Literary Council co-chair Camille Rankine with readings and tributes by Hafizah Geter, and other guests.
Who? New!
Each season BKBF presents debut authors, who we want to shine the light on for our audience. This year we introduce novelists Elizabeth Gonzalez James (Mona at Sea), Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu (The Theory of Flight), and Colleen Van Niekerk (A Conspiracy of Mothers). Acclaimed author, Jonathan Lethem, will introduce the debut authors and talk about […]
Fighting for the World, Presented with NYU’s 370 J Project
Water has taken over a hot world and few places survive, but a magical place called Garbagetown and a girl full of love. Greed runs rampant when a powerful new metal arrives on earth in the wake of a meteor shower, spawning a resource frenzy that engulfs a small community. Join Lincoln Michel (The Body […]
Personal Stories, Universal Resonance
What makes the personal universal? No matter how different or niche, somehow, deeply personal stories always find a way to resonate with audiences large and wide. Join moderator Mariko Tamaki (Surely Books) and panelists Kristen Radtke (Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness), Hiromi Goto (Shadow Life), Lee Lai (Stone Fruit), and Julia Kaye (My […]
A Life of Crime
Join award-winning mystery authors Naomi Hirahara and Walter Mosley for a discussion about their prolific and versatile writing livest. Hirahara’s latest mystery, Clark and Division, revolves around a Japanese American family building a new life in 1940s Chicago after their release from mass incarceration during World War II. Mosley’s indefatigable detective, Easy Rawlins, returns in […]
Ziggy Marley in Conversation
Ziggy Marley discusses his children’s books with Lisa Lucas. Multiple Grammy Award–winning musician Ziggy Marley has been making music and books for children for many years. In 2021 alone, he has two brand-new children’s picture books, Little John Crow and My Dog Romeo. Lisa Lucas, publisher of Pantheon Books, will interview Ziggy about his new […]
Poetry in Times of Crisis
Poets Kendra Allen (The Collection Plate), Jorie Graham (Runaway), Donika Kelly (The Renunciations), and Mai Der Vang (Yellow Rain) discuss their explorations of survival and human resilience in the face of political and personal trauma/struggle. Moderated by Jamia Wilson (This Book is Feminist).
Uyghur Poetry in Exile
Uyghur poetry has flourished for many centuries, its richness reflecting the cosmopolitanism of a culture at the crossroads of Eurasia. Since 2017, the tradition has been critically threatened by China’s mass internment and cultural genocide of the Uyghur people. Join Uyghur poets Tahir Hamut Izgil and Muyesser Abdel’ehed Hendan, as well as historian and translator […]
Using History To Breaks Its Cycle
Education, agitprop, individual testimonies, evidence. There are many ways to break cycles of oppression. These authors combine their personal histories and talents with a determination to illuminate and challenge social inequities lingering from the past. Join authors Nate Powell (Save it for Later), Sharon Lee De La Cruz (I’m a Wild Seed), Beka Feathers (Re: […]
Life as Magically Unusual
Most days that happen to all of us are ordinary . . . but sometimes, something magical happens (especially if you’re the protagonist of a book). Authors Nidhi Chanani (Jukebox), Shing Yin Khor (The Legend of Auntie Po), Molly Ostertag (The Girl from the Sea), and Olivia Stephens (Artie and the Wolf Moon) talk about […]
Twilight Zones of History
The long arm of history reverberates through the fiction of three international stars—from internationally acclaimed Icelandic novelist, Sjón, who imagines how a young man turns to Nazi-inspired fascism in the 60s in his forthcoming novel, Red Milk (translated by Victoria Cribb); to Sheng Keyi, whose parable of Tienanmen Square’s official erasure, Death Fugue (translated by […]
Love and Romance: Then and Now
Authors Vanessa Riley (Island Queen), Piper Huguley (Sweet Tea), and Marcella Bell (The Wildest Ride) discuss the sustained importance of the contemporary and historical romance novel in their books set in the 1800s Caribbean, the American South and Texas. In Island Queen, a freed slave rises to entrepreneurial heights and power, while juggling the competing […]
Let’s Talk About Sex
In Nudes, Elle Nash’s short stories traverse the lives and desires of working-class women, from ex-sex workers to brides-to-be. Brontez Purnell’s 100 Boyfriends follows queer men across the country as they navigate messy relationships and emotional minefields. And Melissa Broder’s Milk Fed follows a woman who obsessively counts calories as she severs ties with her […]
Hybrid Narratives
Two acclaimed authors discuss their hybrid mode. In The Devil’s Treasure, the iconic author Mary Gaitskill has created a chimerical hybrid of fiction, memoir, essay, criticism, and visual art that transcends categorization. This collage of four novels, interspersed with a single short story, is a kind of director’s cut revealing the personal and societal forces […]
Hanif Abdurraqib in Conversation
Poet, essayist, and critic Hanif Abdurraqib has been celebrated for the lyricism and intimacy of his writing, as well as the piercing clarity of his insights on music, race, and American culture. His newest work, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance, is rightfully being lauded as his strongest to date. […]
60th Anniversary of Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth
60th Anniversary of Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth Featuring Cornell West
Crime and Punishment
In Dwyer Murphy’s An Honest Living, an unwitting private eye gets caught up in a crime of obsession between a reclusive literary superstar and her bookseller husband. And in The Family Chao, three apparently successful brothers draw suspicion following the death of their father in Lan Samantha Chang’s small-town murder mystery featured on Barack Obama’s […]
Granta’s Best Young Spanish-Language Novelists II
In 2010, Granta introduced a stellar new generation of Spanish-language writers destined to challenge the literary status quo. More than a decade later, they’ve assembled another era-defining list which reflects an even greater variety—geographically, linguistically, thematically. Join us for a conversation featuring David Aliaga, Alejandro Morellón, Irene Reyes-Noguerol, and Mateo García Elizondo. Moderated by Valerie […]
PEN Presents: The Writer as Migrant
PEN America presents Mexican novelist and founder of DREAMing Out Loud Álvaro Enrigue, co-editor of Somewhere We Are Human, Sonia Guiñansaca, alum of DREAMing Out Loud and a contributor to Somewhere We Are Human and t. jahan to celebrate new anthologies by undocumented or formerly undocumented migrants, refugees, Dreamers, and more. Moderated by PEN America’s […]
Books…Tiktok…Booktok: What’s Up With #BookTok?
Authors E. Lockhart (Family of Liars), Ayana Gray (Beasts of Ruin), and Tashie Bhuiyan (A Show for Two) discuss the impact of the TikTok phenomenon, how readers are making books go viral, and how authors are tapping into the subculture and connecting with users on the platform. Moderated by NYT bestselling author Jessica Goodman (The […]
Genre & Exploding Form presented by the Whiting Foundation
Join us for a discussion with Anthony Cody (Borderland Apocrypha) and Nana Nkweti (Walking on Cowrie Shells), writers who are dissolving genre boundaries to bring new life to familiar literary forms. Moderated by Lincoln Michel (The Body Scout).
Esmeralda Santiago and Jacqueline Woodson in Conversation
Brooklyn Book Festival 2022 BoBi honoree, memoirist and novelist Esmeralda Santiago, author of When I Was Puerto Rican, Almost a Woman, and Conquistadora will be joined in conversation by 2015 Bobi Honoree Jacqueline Woodson, award-winning writer of books for adults, children, and adolescents, including Brown Girl Dreaming, After Tupac and Another Brooklyn. Introduced by Camille […]
Sick and Satired
If laughter is the best medicine, satire may be the cure-all we need for the myriad ills of our time. In A. M. Homes’s new satirical novel, The Unfolding, a wealthy Republican donor outraged by the results of the 2008 election puts together a coalition of like-minded individuals to get America “back on track.” And […]
Second Read: Presented by The Brooklyn Public Library
A close look at Mr. President with translator David Unger, novelists Valeria Luiselli and Rodrigo Fuentes, and scholar Vivian Arimany. In an unnamed country, an egomaniacal dictator schemes to dispose of a political adversary and maintain his grip on power. As tyranny takes hold, everyone is forced to choose between compromise and death. Inspired by […]
NBF Presents: An Afternoon With the National Book Awards
National Book Award–honored authors Martín Espada (Floaters, 2021 Poetry Winner), Katie Kitamura (Intimacies, 2021 Fiction Longlist), and Natasha Wimmer (Space Invaders, 2021 Translated Literature Finalist) gather for a cross-genre conversation about the borders of time, place, and language. Moderated by Ruth Dickey, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation.
Legacies of Injustice
Two authors craft compelling narratives that paint vivid portraits of America’s shameful past. In Geraldine Brooks’s Horse, two storylines from different time periods are threaded together to reveal America’s enduring legacy of injustice and racism. And in Jabari Asim’s Yonder, a group of strivers connect through love and friendship while fighting to survive the cruel […]
Sacred Memories
When reflecting upon the past, what exactly makes something “true”? Is there power in the act of actively remembering and honoring what one may long to forget? And to what extent are we willing to sacrifice privacy for human connection? These are just a few of the questions raised in Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House […]
The New Fantastical
The latest novels from these bestselling authors explore power, creation, and the ties that can both bind us and rend us apart—sometimes in the same moment. NYT bestselling authors Ottessa Moshfegh (Lapvona), Marlon James (Moon Witch, Spider King), and Sheila Heti (Pure Colour) come together to discuss reality and fantasy—and the dark, murky, and mysterious […]